Returning home
by Elmund9
Summary: One hollow, two shinigamis and three humans are transported to the Naruto world by a Sterneriter. Would they be able to return home or they would be doomed to fight a battle that isn't theirs? (Naruto x Bleach)
1. Changing world

**One hollow, two shinigamis and three humans are transported to the Naruto world by an Sterneriter. Would they be able to return home or they would be doomed to fight a battle that isn't theirs.**

* * *

Changing world

Everything began with the decision of hiding in a small room without windows.

It was a strategic choice to laid down for a while, Soul Society under siege and with Yawch, the leader of the Quincy, on the loose, it was necessary to retreat and wait until it was night. According to Uryu that was the moment when Ywach was the weakest.

Ichigo knew they needed all the help possible, but he still felt a sense of dread when he looked at his new "ally". Sosuke Aizen, the most treacherous shinigami in existence, had decided to fight against Ywach, and at some point before Ichigo arrival, he had lost his arm and got a hole in his chest.

Orihime was using her powers on him, he was knocked out, but he was still dangerous. Uryu had his bow materialized and his cold eyes were observing the traitor. Chad was at the left of Orhime, his fists ready to do what was necessary at any false move.

And if having the crazy madman was not enough, Grimmjow was on their base too, his steps echoing in the room annoyingly.

"Something is wrong" Uryu said out of nowhere, the grip on his bow stronger and his eyes scanning the four walls. Ichigo barely registered the words when his world faded.

Their room was enveloped in darkness and the air banished in one second, an unknown voice telling them that even if it costed their life, everyone of his Majesty enemies would be gone.

A blink, an hour, an eternity later, the darkness faded and Ichigo woke up without having fall asleep. He was on a forest and around him all the rest of his "team" layed unconscious and dirty, as if they had fallen to the ground from a couple of meters and knocked out for the hit.

He ran to Orihime side first, checking her calm breath and peaceful face. Her riatsu was as stable as always. Next was Chad, his friend opened his eyes before Ichigo approached him. Grimmjow was the next to get up and Uryu and Orihime regained consciousness almost at the same time.

Only Aizen remained dead cold. At that rate Orihime would have already finish her work of healing before the traitor woke up. If Orihime were a less kinder soul, Ichigo would have asked her to let him without an arm, He was dangerous and Ichigo's friends wouldn't be safe around him, but she was a healer, with an oath akin of a doctor to heal and save. Just in that moment he desired her to stop having such strong will.

Ichigo waved that pattern of thought away, if Aizen got rogue, then Ichigo would stop him again. Simple as that.

"Where the heck are we?" Grimmjow exclaimed loudly and then his teeth clenched before spating at the ground "This reishi ain't normal!"

Ichigo knew that was true, even in the Dangai the reishi had the same familiar feel as it did in the Real World, Soul Society and Hueco Mundo. Wherever they found themselves the reishi felt alien in his skin, it was bearable and his powers were the same, but he still felt misplaced.

"In another dimension" Aizen voice cut the air with his even voice and Ichigo cursed himself for not noticing that he had woken up. The traitor was sat on the ground and Orihime was still working on his arm, but the madman looked as if he had planned everything "I have done studies of portals before, and the reishi from other dimensions is a know thing to me. I have never crossed over as almost every dimension reishi has been potentially toxic. This world at least is compatible with us. But we have a problem."

The man lips curled up and Ichigo felt as if he was facing a teacher in a surprise exam and he had not studied for it.

"There is very little reishi, and different that the one we are used to" Uryu said, he looked at Orihime and Chad first before making an analysis at the rest "Orihime, Chad and me have regained our material bodies back. But the rest of you..."

"What? What's the problem!" Grimmjow snarled but then Aizen gave him a single glance and the Arrancar froze and stopped talking.

"We are made of reishi, we breath and absorb reishi, Grimmjow. Our bodies would be unable to sustain us in a place like this. Even if we were to "take" the kind of riatsu we need from the locals, it would not be enough, our bodies would try to compensate, then will try to eat themselves and later we will break in particles to join the atmosphere...I calculate we have about thirty days before our bodies decide to eat themselves"

Ichigo gulped at that information, Uryu sad expression was all that was needed to know that Aizen that theory was right.

"We will return to our dimension before that happens!" Ichigo said with all the confidence he could master.

"And how would you do that, ryoka?" Aizen smug face was enough to make Ichigo make fists. After some seconds of icy silence the man decided that he had everyone sweating cold and told his plan "It would take years to rebuild a laboratory capable to winstand interdimensional rifts experiments. But, if we want to make that possible, we need gigais. Ichigo Kurosaki, Grimmjow, I have a mission for you"

* * *

Steal bodies from a graveyard was the last thing Ichigo imagined he would do in his life, but there he was, alongside Grimmjow digging out corpses of a graveyard of a _ninja_ village they had infiltrated.

They had found the village, "Konoha", just three days after arriving to that world. At a normal pace, it was just about eigth hours away from when they had landed and luckily for them, the world was habited of humans and ones that had enough of similar technology as the real world. There were even telephones polls.

Aizen had sent them to steal all sort of stuff, from paper to medical equipment. The first problem was that around the village there was a shield that had as only opening a gate, so Grimmjow and Ichigo had to be fast when searching all the things that Aizen needed to make a gigai and use sonido/shunpo to have the material things they needed pass unnoticed across the city and the gate (and there were always two guys on patrol there).

They were invisible, but the humans in that world weren't ordinary. They called themselves ninjas and just two days ago Ichigo had seen one walking in a tree, vertically! If that was not enough proof that something was off, when he had stolen material from a school, he saw kids making a sort of magic copies of themselves.

Aizen found that interesting, but potentially dangerous. Time was too scarse to study yet another race, he knew the normal human body of their world, and with that baseline making gigais before a month was possible. Even if according to him, there would be a need to improve their gigais and do a lot of further research. Problem was that; If humans were defying the physical laws with their bodies, perhaps their systems and organs weren't the same and Aizen would have a problem to adjust the parameters of the gigais.

Luckily for them, last week Ichigo and Grimmjow had found a ninja corpse on the road, his soul could still be traced on the fresh body. Aizen had been happy as he made an autopsy and later everyone was happy to know gigais were going to work.

"This sucks!" Grimmjow said again after finishing his digging. On his hands a death man. They needed at least nine bodies and they had only digg out six. Ichigo would had been guilty but as the son of a doctor he knew his fair share about death bodies used for practice.

And well, the fate of his world was at stake, so what they were doing was necessary.

"Next tomb"

* * *

When they returned carrying bodies to their secret cave, Orihime gratted them with warm soup. She gave the corpses a sad glance and made a small sign of respect before using her most cheerful face again and telling them to eat.

Orihime and Chad were the ones designated in making food and keeping an eye in the perimeter, Ishida was Aizen helper in his "laboratory". At first no one had wanted to try Orihime strange receipts, but unlucky for them, Aizen said " yes" to every new idea that crossed her head and Grimmjow and Ichigo had to stole from chocolate to carrots that she needed to make her receipts. Sometimes it was good others it was not.

This one was a time of "not"

Ichigo glared at the soup and forced another spoon on his mouth, Orihime was apologetic about the whole ordeal and her brown eyes downcasted every time she ate from her plate, there was an apology on her mouth, hanging in there but was to wise to voice.

No one was petty enough to get mad at the food and taking an apology was a blow to their prides. But that didn't stop them for gulping and making faces.

"Grimmjow, don't let the food go to waste" Aizen was the only one unfazed by the taste of the soup, his eyes were dangerously set in a cold stare towards his espada and his full bowl. For a creepy jerk, Aizen was a man that cared a lot about the forms. The man always ate along them and was respectful in the dinner, waiting until everyone had their plates served to eat and making talks about his advances in the gigais.

Grimmjow gritted his teeth and next he drank the whole bowl at once. Aizen just smiled and took another spoon.

"How long until we have gigais?" Ichigo dared to ask. Aizen was more amicable when eating, so chances were high that he would respond honestly.

"I have to make an autopsy on at least another four bodies before making the gigai. At the same time, I must test our different riatsu over the bodies so I can craft a compatible gigagi. First will be mine, next Grimmjow's and lastly yours, Ichigo Kurosaki. Still, before proceeding, I need fresher data, so tomorrow bring me fresh bodies of the morgue" the man made a wicked smile and Ichigo burrows frowned. "So about eigth days before you have your new body"

"Urahara would have them already" Ichigo said with malice, Aizen did an small gesture of disapproval with his mouth but changed to his smiling face again a second later.

"Gigagi ingenery isn't my field. I prefer to study Souls, barriers and dimensions. Wich coincidentally comes at our favor when being stranded in another dimension"

"Have you created a gigia before?" Uryu asked, more likely wanting to confirm his deductions.

"One time. It come out splendid so I'm confident in my skills. No need to worry. Yet"

Ichigo finished his soup and decided that he couldn't handle more of Aizen games. The traitor wanted everyone on his tip toes, for the apprensive look in Ishida and Orihime faces he had succeeded. Even Chad eyes were observing Ichigo body, scared of the possible end.

* * *

Ten days later and Ichigo was inside a gigagi. His new body felt icky on him. It was like having annoying clothes all over his skin. Or skin over his skin.

Aizen had created pretty good replicas of each one of them, some details were off, like a mole in his left shoulder that shouldn't be there or his left pinky having a burn scar. And...small details that as a man were difficult to bear. But the alternative of disintegrating so he couldn't get annoyed about synchronization problems.

Grimmjow replica was brown haired and had not skull outside the skin, so the espada was normally scratching the superfice with his hand, only when Aizen wasn't looking because the pseudo leader of their group didn't like his work scratched.

Aizen gigai had dark circles around his eyes. He had worked in the other two bodies using his gigai and even with high spiritual energy, a human body was still human. Sixty hours without sleep where showing on his fake body and the man had never looked more worn out.

"Fill this form about your gigai, expect a new version in the following two weeks..." Aizen said lowly, his eyes barely open "We will need to move to another place in a short while...the energy we need to sustain the gigais is more easily absorbed by being surrounded of a big number of people"

"Are we stealing people powers?" Ichigo asked alarmed, in his mind imagining himself as a vampire.

"It's just energy being transferred, they would spend less energy on us that what they do smiling. We can't absorb more than that without having our own energy getting away to other people or the environment. That's how gigais work. It takes energy in of the enviroment and don't let ours go out. It would not harm any human" he blinked twice "But as far as I can attest with my gigagi, to keep the homeostasis we need being surrounded by a big quantity of humans..."

"You aren't making sense" Ichigo said. The older man was half asleep and every word was more messy than the last "So, what's the plan"

"Konoha...we are leading to Konoha tomorrow"

* * *

In the night Ichigo watched the dark sky, unable to recognize any constellation in the stars. He was trying to make sense of where he was.

He was used to crazy, he had always being capable of seeing ghosts and one time he fought against a giant moth (or Aizen for his enemies). Add that he was a mix of almost every race know in the afterlife and you get a person difficult to faze. So when Ichigo found something crazy he believed he had a good reason to do so.

Waking up in another dimension, one that didn't have hollows, and working for Aizen surely counted as crazy. Oh, and there were ninjas. Magical ninjas.

Magical ninjas with terrible wardrobe choices (he saw a kid was dressed in bright orange buying shurikens!).

Tomorrow, Ichigo mused, that day his world was going to change again.

* * *

 **I only made this fic because I want to do a Naruto vs Bleach characters and need a kind of world building to let it happen.**

 **Oh, and having Naruto interact with Aizen. Naruto knows about loniless and according to Ichigo, Aizen feels alone, will the talk not jutsu work on Aizen heart?**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	2. Different paths

Different paths

"What's this?" Grimmjow hand was gripping a muddy cloth "It's smells like you, Kurosaki!"

Ichigo catched the thing and looked at it, it was a yellow ball with spikes, it was a plush, it was Kon.

"Man. What are you doing here?" He asked but didn't get any answer. "Hey! Talk!"

Grimmjow was shaking his head and his mouth let his upper teeth show, the reprobation at the scene displayed in front of him evident. Ichigo felt the blood gone out of his face, the silence from Kon was not good. He took his Substitute Shinigami insignia and hit Kon with it.

The green pill wasn't there.

"What's the problem" Uryu walked toward them followed by Orihime "Isn't that your doll?"

Ichigo face reddened as he raised a threatening fist and clenched his teeth "What did you say, Uryu? That you want me to kick your ass? Right?!"

"Can you let your children's play for another time?" Aizen requested with a evil smile as he arrived, his eyes appraising everyone on the glade "What do you have in your hands, Ichigo Kurosaki? And what are you doing, Miss Inoue?"

Orihime was crouching over a small bush, her fingers gingerly traveling the ground, even when everyone had focused her attention on her she keep doing what she was doing. Only muttering "searching" without turning to any of them. No one did nothing but watch her until she raised her hand, in the middle of her index and tumb there was a small green ball "Found Kon!"

Everyone was silent at her wide smile, even Aizen was midly confused at what was happening, until his eyes found Ichigo face and gave a Machiavellian grin. Ichigo tensed and was glad to notice Ichigo was already touching his Quincy cross.

"Kon? Might it be that modified soul that Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki rescued?" Aizen walked toward Orihime. Her reaction was fast: she closed her hand and took it towards her chest.

Ichigo got in the middle of the two, the madman like Ichigo was using a gigai that restrained his powers but he was still a creepy, crazy, dangerous piece of shit. The teen wasn't going to ask how Aizen knew about Kon, but he was not going to let him touch the mod-soul or harm Orihime.

The brown eyes of Aizen widened a fraction and his lips formed a line before going back to his amused face and then the traitor hid his hands inside the pockets of his trousers. It was one of those things Aizen did to raise a person anger but Ichigo wouldn't fall for it. Instead, the substitute shinigami dropped his fighting instance, he had made peace with the fact that he needed to trust Aizen.

After some seconds of silence the traitor began to walk again and everyone followed him.

Orihime keep Ichigo pace and gave him Kon pill after making sure that Aizen wasn't looking, her warm hand barely touching his in the interchange. It felt different than before, his gigai senses were different and he knew he needed to get used at the change.

"We need a plan to enter the village. I assume you have one already" Uryu began and Aizen, as if a magic spell was whispered, began a long monologue about a fake past for everybody and then made lectures about medicine.

Ichigo would have rolled his eyes, but Grimmjow perpetual glare and snarl was enough to appease the substitute shinigami mood. It was like watching a mad cat trapped inside a box and with that thought the teen was happy enough for the rest of their journey.

* * *

Ichigo looked again at his fake papers, trying to figure out when Aizen had done the forgery of them. There was even a photo Ichigo didn't recall being taken. It was quite the mystery and it would remain as one because Ichigo wasn't going to ask.

What's a fake paper compared to a fake body? Ichigo touched the orange hair of his gigai at that thought. It was an annoying shell, it get tired faster and had lesser endurance that his body. Ichigo couldn't help to think about Urahara. The scientist would have crafted gigais suited to battle, capable to winstand the spiritual energy of Captains without the restraints.

Maybe Urahara and the rest were working in how to retrieve Ichigo and company? If any man could think them were in another dimension was Urahara, so even if Aizen turned out more a danger that was worth it, everyone could still return home.

"Next"

The words cut Ichigo musings and brought him to reality. He was in an office that attended foreigners that wanted to be inside of Konoha, how did they have a interview so fast was another mistery that Ichigo didn't want to pry on.

The teen got in front of the officer that would decide if he could live inside Konoha. A middle age man with dark brown hair looked at him, or more accurately, observed the orange hair of Icihigo with disgust.

The teen almost scoffed at that. Apparently hair that looked bleached was always seen as wrong in all dimensions.

"What's your reason to move to Konoha" The man asked, his black eyes observing Ichigo dismissively.

"Work in the Hospital, we heard there were spots"

"Where did you hear that?"

"A passing merchant" Ichigo said with even voice. The story that Aizen had hammered on them easy on his lips. Just wanderers from a crushed village in search from the safety of a Hidden Village. Aizen was their teacher in the art of healing people and even Grimmjow was forced to remember the parts of the body in their walk. Ichigo was grateful that his father had a clinic, just so Aizen wouldn't scold him as he did the Espada.

"Mmm...I see..." The officer hold the paper against the light and looked again at Ichigo.

"What did you do before?"

"Study" Ichigo answered and knew that's how far he would go.

The man raised from his chair and went to talk with the girl in the next desk and both decided something in whispers. Ichigo couldn't muster enough care about the whole affair, in perspective very few things were worth getting mad at.

Failure at something as simple as getting inside Konoha was not the world end. Back home there was a sort of real world end happening and Ichigo planned to return and stop it, so he smiled back at the man obvious smile.

Next he went to the waiting room and looked through the window, watching the people go in their normal lives, there were people with headbands among the rest, walking with more confidence that the others. Probably those were the ninjas, if he closed his eyes and tried to perceive their riatsu there was something that set them apart. They weren't normal humans and their energy showed it, but were something different that spiritual aware people on his world.

Ichigo closed his eyes and then opened them to look at his hands, the strange energy in the ninjas and civilians was on his gigai too, so he probably could train his gigai to do magic Ninja feats. That was a plus at least.

* * *

"Cheer up, Kurosaki" Uryu said as he adjusted his glasses, he was probanly having an internal fight between the side that was glad Ichigo failed and the one that wanted Ichigo helping to keep Aizen under control "At least you will be outside"

Ichigo glared at Aizen. The older man was smiling from the other side of the street. The madman had made it, along Uryu, Orihime and Grimmjow, all of them had permissions to work for an Hospital. Aizen and three of his "apprentices" were going to work and live in Konoha and the other two were going away.

Chad and Ichigo were apparently not Aizen's best "medicine apprentices" and their "teacher" was going to bid them farewell to look as the kind person he was portraying to be.

Uryu was smart and keen, if he believed Aizen were a danger to Orihime he wouldn't be following Aizen's plan. So, Ichigo would trust the Quincy and go to another place. With his bankai travel was fast (and flying was really good to short time between places)

"I think you two will do fine, I hope the time apart would make you wiser and help you mature"

Ichigo and Chad nodded, both were amazed in how they took the traitor words without making a scene. Magical ninjas on the watch it was better if they just acted as mature students giving their good byes to teacher and friends and taking wisely words to their hearts.

"Yes. Uryu...I need to request something" Ichigo gulped a little as he looked at his friends blue eyes, knowing full well that he didn't need to say anything more. Ishida raised his glasses before nodding.

"You too. Be careful. Ichigo, Chad" the Quincy made a try of a smile but dropped it before his last word was carried away by the wind.

Orihime smiled at them first, then she tried to embrace Ichigo and Chad in the same hug "Good luck, guys" she said without losing her smile. She had faith in them and that was enough for Ichigo to walk away without any fear.

There was not a "see you later", it was not needed.

* * *

"I expected Aizen to send Grimmjow with instructions for us. What are we supossed to do now?" Ichigo said to Chad, Konoha a day away and a earth path stretching on the horizon towards the unknown.

"Learn?" Chad ventured an answer, even if he himself had no idea.

Ichigo was glad that it was his best friend the other one rejected, by the subtle hints of happiness on Chad face, the substitute shinigami knew the feeling was mutual. Whatever risks the magic Ninja world trowed them, the two men would face them without problem.

"Yeah, let's learn of this world...and find a village. That's what we are going to do!"

The two friends walked without knowing where they were going. Ichigo noticed, that for the first time on his life, he was aimless in his adventure, but as always, he had company.

Some things never change after all.

* * *

...

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki, the most unpredictable student in the Academy had a feeling of uneasiness since the morning. That was normal when he had a exam the next day, he looked at the dark sky outside his window and wondered once again why did he care to study.

No one would care about his grades either way...

Naruto scolded himself before thinking about his next prank, he had to study.

* * *

 **...**

* * *

 **To be continue**

 **..Do you think that if I ask for reviews I will get them? Anyway, thanks for reading.**


	3. Meetings

**Meetings**

Two months estranged in another dimension and Ichigo felt he was about to break a personal mark on that, he just needed to remember how long was his first stay in Soul Society but he was just to mad to care.

He felt he was jailed and would never be free and that was making him anxious.

"Relax, Ichigo" Chad put his hand in Ichigo _fake_ shoulder and the substitute shinigami wanted to crawl away.

The stupid gigai was getting more and more annoying by the second, too weak and too small for him. Being prisoner of skins and bones was something Ichigo didn't believe was possible, but he was in that annoying situation.

"I know" Ichigo forced himself to say.

The forest was endless and they had yet to find any place with more than a hundred of citizens. Perhaps that was the reason for his uneasiness, he wasn't taking his vampire dose of energy and animals and trees weren't enough.

The rocks under his steps were getting more annoying each step and the air was too dusty on his nose. Even the butterfly wings made a lousy sound. His eyes went to the dark butterfly and he almost made a double take.

A hell butterfly was flying near him. _What the..?_

He raised his middle and index finger, mimicking the pose he had seen other shinigamis use when using those insects. The butterfly rested on his fingers and he found himself with new information at every flutter of the black wings.

So, he wasn't supposed to stay inside the gigai for more than a week; he needed to be outside it a few hours at least; everyone else was already working on the hospital; and Ichigo should go back to Konoha in the next week to change of gigai.

The butterfly went away after relying it's message and both, Ichigo and Chad, looked up to the blue sky feeling confused at the whole thing.

They had no time to talk about it, because a strong spiritual pressure was traveling to them fastly. Ichigo almost laughed at his own luck, as always a strong unknown enemy was going to face him.

The teen looked between his shinigami badge and the pocket where Kon's pill was. What should he use? Perhaps he should even try to fight with his gigai and somehow he would unlock an ability of his fake body. That was how it usually worked for him.

The energy tried to fade away, but riatsu couldn't be hided that way from Ichigo or Chad. It was moving with a lot of speed and even if his senses could catch the figure about to attack his gigai couldn't move fast enough.

Chad could.

His friend used his Brazo Derecho to punch the ninja out of the way.

The man was a bulky, dark skinned and had dark shades over his eyes. He had a a buck beard and blue tatoos under his left eye. He looked dangerous and well, like a gangster. Still, compared with Kenpachi very few men could made his skin sweat cold with their assassin aura.

"You are strong, aren't ya!" The man wiped his mouth and next second he draw out a sword and tried to cut Chad neck at the same time he trowed a small black knife towards Ichigo.

The Fullbringer had no problem to dodge the attack and then with his left hand punched the man. And he puffed. Ichigo catched the knife from the eye and then searched the spiritual pressure. Six meter to to his left.

The unknown man barely dodged the knife before being attacked by Chad. He raised another sword and there was lighting over it, not that it could do anything against the other arm. Ichigo knew hierro was a really a good defense, and even with that name it wasn't an electricity conduct.

The two sides clashed, at some point the man had draw yet another blade but it failed to pierce the hierro and slice Chad head. Both men were pushed by the force, but only Chad could maintain his ground.

Still, it wasn't going well, the man had failed his murder because he couldn't see el Brazo Derecho, just a plain arm. It was just a matter of time until he tried an attack from behind, on their necks. Fullbringer versus Ninja magic...if the ninjas weren't mercenaries Ichigo would give the edge to his friend. Killing wasn't the same as brawling. Never.

"Your arm isn't what it looks like" the man said as he got up of the ground, so smoothly that Ichigo barely registered the movement "What are ya playing at?"

Ichigo raised at eyebrow at the playful tone the man was using. He looked as a straight forward brawler but maybe he was playing a mental game to use his Ninja magic. There was a shift in the riatsu, something kinder but even then Ichigo keep his guard up.

"We are just travellers" Ichigo answered honestly. The man grip on his swords was still strong, but Ichigo knew that in worst case scenario he could be fast enough to use the shinigami badge and tip the scales to his favor. The other dropping his killing instinct just meant Ichigo would know the ninja intentions before the man himself.

"From wich village, brats?" The man began to walk, making small steps, searching for a new spot to attack and defend "Your Ninja skills are really bad"

Ichigo just blinked at the man words, and maybe his mouth droppep in confusion. After some seconds he recomposed himself.

"From no one. We aren't ninjas" he still decided to play his honest card without knowing how would the man react.

The ninja spatted blood to the ground and smiled. He was pretty confident for a man that had been punched twice without delivering any hit. Ichigo hand went to his badge but did nothing, waiting for the counter attack or shif in energy that would follow, instead the man laughed.

"I like your style!" He sheathed his swords and raised his fist as he showed a toothy smile "I will take you under my wing, kids!"

Ichigo stared with disbelief at the friendly gesture, but after Chad nod, he pumped fists with the stranger. The man smile widened and his posture relaxed.

"You are exactly what I believe. I'm Killer B and who would you be?"

"I'm Ichigo Kurosaki and he is Sado Yasutora"

"Ichigo? Strawberry? ... Not a ninja definitely!"

A small part of Ichigo wondered when had he become collected. Even his name being misinterpreted didn't made him want to punch something. Probably it was after his first death at Ulquiorra hands. Or the second one.

* * *

Kumokagure was another Ninja village, one that was build in a rocky landscape and incorporated the difference places to the nature. Orihime would have loved such an odd architecture, it was her nature to see beuty and charm in the strange, but for Ichigo the place was only a reminder of how far away from home he was.

No faction back home used such organic architecture, all of them liking big bland towers, perhaps Bach had tried a more flashy palace but the whiteness just made everything look the same kind of dead that all the rest.

He was on a chair, looking through a window without being capable to process what happened.

Ichigo would still be grateful about his luck. Killer B was pleading on Ichigo and Chad behalf, something about becoming bodyguards or some stuff like that. Even without changing words with his friend, the shinigami knew that Killer B "friendship" branch could be just a ploy to keep the two outsiders under continuous vigilance and unable to plan something.

As long as he had Kon and his shinigami badge any plan to spy on Ichigo would end in failure. For some reason neither Chad or Ichigo had to give up any of their belongings. The show of faith put Ichigo over the fence, his rationality pleading him to mistrust and his feelings finding Killer B an honorable trustworthy friend.

"Are we going to become ninjas?" Chad finally broke the silence as he sat in the chair across Ichigo.

"Looks like it" his friend didn't say anything about more, but just in case, Ichigo pointed at his badge to signal that they could get away at any moment. Chad exhaled and nodded at Ichigo plan.

Before anything more could be done, Killer B walked inside the room alongside another bulky dark skinned man, the stranger was older and in his eyes there was a hint of honed killing abilities. Ichigo wondered if the ninjas could see his own killer's eyes.

From Aizen to Ukitake, Ichigo was able to see something dark in the eyes of people that had killed other humans beings (or so much as a Quincy and Arrancar still counted as human beings). There were different shades of darkness, and Ichigo preferred not to think about it, he was just glad that no one of his friends had that kind of eyes.

Maybe, in his gigai, Ichigo brown eyes would appear harmless to the assassin gaze, after all why would a traveller be a killer? The probabilities were high.

His only other hope was that maybe just Ichigo could see the glint that hided even in the kinder faces. He knew that he lacked that ability before going to Hueco Mundo, but he couldn't pin point when did he learnt it, before dying on the dome or until he clashed his swords against Aizen's. He wasn't sure of what to make about it.

Ichigo frowned at his disarrayed thoughts, when facing a killing machine being distracted was almost a death wish, so he forced himself back to reality and tried to not observe the assassin eyes.

"I'm Sado Yasutora" Chad bowed his head and took the initiative in the talking for the first time "He is my friend, Ichigo Kurosaki"

"I am the Fourth Raikage" the man said with authority "What were you doing in our territory? And why did you attack my brother? "

Ichigo looked between the two men, there was a resemblance without a doubt, but even riatsu sensing was pretty much useless when searching kinship. At first Killer B saying he would convince his leader sounded as plausible, but someone attacking the leader family without retribution sounded crazy.

"Calm down, would ya bro!" Killer B stood in the middle of Ichigo and Chad, his smile as honest as ever. "They are cool, and have talent. Told ya, they are perfect to be my new guard"

Ichigo stared at Killer B and stopped the urge to hit his forehead. He knew already that was the man plan, but hearing it again, it sounded stupid. He liked the man already and protecting was on Ichigo core in stronger ways that his blood, but being a bodyguard of a ninja they had attacked was mad man talking.

"What was their rank again? Didn't they told you they had no village? Didn't you said they weren't using any kind of jutsu? You are talking madness"

Ichigo nodded in agreement. The man might be talking over their heads but Ichigo wanted an answer already, he was even putting attention to the riatsus that failed to conceal themselves inside the walls and roof, ready to fight once the leader decided them unworthy to protect his brother.

"Ssss... trust me bro. I know their hearts already, we interchanged fists. So what do ya say?" Killer B raised his fist to his brother and the black eyes of the Fourth Hokage widened in surprise. His riatsu shifting from aggressive to calm.

"Fine, do what you want!" And the man went away, leaving his grinning brother behind.

Ichigo did not know how to take that. Chad send him a hesitant smile and Ichigo just dropped his head. Follow the flow already...his life was fantastic.

Chad shrugged in agreement.

* * *

Orihime read again the diagram of chakra points, it was necessary to learn everything she could about the human body in the ninja world. Superficially they were the same, but the chakra energy flowing in their innteranl channels let them to use "jutsus", and like any body part, those chakras could be hurt and needed healing.

She was utterly confused about the whole thing, apparently the stomach was really important to build energy when riatsu came from the heart according to Aizen.

Orihime winced when she remembered Aizen, Uryu was on the other end of the room and gave her one of those silents asks.

"I'm thinking...this peace, with Aizen..." Orihime shakes her head and turned back her attention to the book "Sorry, forget I said anything"

The Quincy nodded and tried to force himself to smile, but his lips barely turned up. But gratefully the boy decided that he needed to finish the book too.

Orihime was unable to concentrate again, instead her mind wandered to their new place. Two rooms, a living room with a small kitchen, one bathroom and a basement (and an underground basement in building, Aizen had took a page on Urahara secret facility or something... Maybe they had been friends and...)

Orihime laughed at that idea and her friend looked at her curiously. His mouth was already forming a verbal question when there was a soft knock on the door followed by someone entering the living room.

Aizen got inside the house and looked at the teens with half closed eyelids. She had been used to the evil overlord being a smiling villian out of books, but after living with him almost two months the times when the man looked human were a normal occurrence.

"Do you want tea, Mr. Aizen?" she asked knowing the answer already.

"Yes, it will be appreciated, Miss Inoue"

Uryu stopped Orihime raising a hand and went to the oven, putting the water to boil and searching for the tea bags. They were far away from getting a comfy life and lacked a lot of things, luckily Aizen could be charming enough to rent a house and pay much later. And Orihime received a lot of gifts...

"You are early" Uryu asked with a small edge on his voice.

"Already finished my rounds" Aizen said as he searched the device that let him get out of the gigai, it was a small gauntlet that the overlord carried with him all the times "Yours is in the afternoon, isn't it?"

Uryu nodded as he poured the hot water in a cup and then he let the small bag of tea fall inside the water.

The Hospital was big and there was enough room for the patients, but for some reason it lacked enough doctors and nurses for the facility, it was such a lonely place.

Aizen took a deep breath and gave himself a slap in his chest. The gigai felt to the ground unceremoniously and the man exhaled out of relief. He still had those nasty looking black bonds around all his body, the only one he had gotten rid of was the one on his left eye, and that one was still wrapped over his brown hair.

The man walked towards Uryu and Orihime's friend handed the cup of tea to Aizen, that took it between his covered hands. The Quincy retreated when he could, the bit of the riatsu of the shinigami lingering on him even when he stood at Orihime side and away from Aizen.

"It looks like the gigai is giving up. Miss Inoue, would you be so kind as to check it?"

Orihime went to the body, careful to not get near Aizen. His face darkened before forming a mocking grin.

The gigai head was bleeding and as always there were burn marks on the front. The feet were normally the ones nearer to Aizen and would have been the worst part harmed by the man riatsu. She called her Shun Shun Rika and began the healing.

Uryu stayed in the room all the process. By the time she finished it was already time for Uryu to go, and Aizen got inside it with a smirk, cleaning out invisible dust as he raised up.

"I have things to do" the older man said before walking out of the house, leaving two old teens behind.

After Aizen riatsu faded away, Uryu adjusted his glasses and looked at Orihime with sharp blue eyes, a hint of a smile in his lips.

"For a centuries old shinigami; he sure acts as a child"

Orihime grinned in return. Typical of Uryu to be collected enough to make jokes like that.

* * *

Naruto looked at his test sheet, the two digit number mocking him every single time.

It hurt. He had really tried, he had studied all the week before the exam, copying the characters on his notebook hoping that at least his muscles would remember. He could barely sleep after finishing his studies, the sense of failure looming nearer and unbeatable. And indeed, he had failed. Only four answers right out of thirty.

Whatever! Tests didn't make Hokages!

He made the sheet a small ball and trowed it behind him and tried to make his best "I'm great" smile. He was so focused in the act that he walked straight up against a man. His head hit the man strong back and he lost balance, so his feet decided to trip.

Falling against the ground didn't bother him, his bruised pride did.

"What's your problem, old man?!" He yelled at the unknown person; a civilian that even if tall, looked nerdy with those squared glasses. His brown eyes barely registered Naruto on the ground.

He was tired of receiving that look. He was real! He was going to be Hokage and everyone would see him! He felt his ire building up in the pit of his stomach and more because he could hear the whispers. Always there, in the borders of his life, those whispers hiding secrets about Naruto but never reveling anything, haunting his soul and mind every single time.

The man looked around him, observing the people with mild curiosity, and then his brown eyes focused in Naruto again, studying him with deep interest. There was something dangerous in that gaze, his Ninja instincts buzzing in the back of his head asked him to raise a kunai and put distance beteween them.

The lips of the man turned up and his kind smile disarmed every one of Naruto's defenses and reserves.

He was so craved for any sign of human warm that any show of kindness caused him to feel something akin to wholeness. Even if one second ago he had feel afraid, the next he was taking the man hand and smiling back. He was so happy for that show of civility that he didn't notice the man eyes piercing the scenario around them.

"It seems you have dropped something" the stranger pointed out to the paper ball.

"It's nothing!" Naruto said as he gestured with his hands, trying to bath in the offered kindness while it lasted. How long until yet another person decided to give him the could shoulder?

"I saw a trash can in the corner of the street"

Naruto felt his good mood fadding. Adults were very stuck on the rules and not funny at all. Even if the stranger was nice he was annoying.

"Why does it matter to you?!" He said with eyes almost closed, squinting almost at the man. The adult first looked taken back, but he regained his composure and his smile was back with a small edge.

"You shouldn't litter, little boy" His smooth voice and the presence of his being did the charm. Naruto was back at the academy and a teacher had ordered him to do something in that commanding voice. So the little Ninja in training went and took back his test, stopping before raising again, unfolding the paper one more time and feeling a pang again.

 _Failure_ the people said, and Naruto had failed to prove them he was more.

The man waited for Naruto to follow his unsaid order, peering over the boy shoulder at the test. The young boy looked back without turning the rest of his body. His eyes focused on his toes.

"Jerk!" Naruto screamed and ran away from the man. He couldn't dare to watch the man face again. His shame was again his only company.

 **To continue**

* * *

...

Thanks for reading.

P. D. There would not be any pairing, sorry to the shippers but...nah, I just wanted to write some versus and friendship sort of things.


	4. Don't be my friend

**Don't be my friend**

There was a waterfall and a nice island in a middle of a lake. It looked as the perfect place to meditate and find his center.

Instead of that, Ichigo was dodging the blades of a _water clone._ The last swing of the clone almost cut out Ichigo head, he had no idea what would happened if something killed the gigai. It would just be poetic justice that a death God was killed by a plain regular sword.

Killer B laughed from time to time, his voice ringing in the place like an insufrable echo. Chad at his side was sharpening a kunai and was definitely not looking at Ichigo struggle.

He had no sword but somehow he was supposed to win against an armed opponent. In his human body he could do it, even without any riatsu to help him his reflexes and strength was top notch, and with riatsu he could even let the sword hit his neck and let the Quincy blood do it's magic.

Ichigo ducked again and felt his breathing ragged. Instead of thinking about his body he was better out trying to figure out the clone weakness. One that didn't require Ichigo exposing himself to the blades. He took distance and looked at the fake Killer B form: a sword in each hand, firm steps that made a watery sound and he always struck first with the right.

As he couldn't attack the upper body without risking being pierced, he ran to the clone and before the sword could hit his face, he made a dash to its feet and kicked with all his force and zero restraint. The clone collapsed after the hit.

The water felt heavy on his hair and it damped his new Ninja attire.

"Oh! Well done, Ichi!" B jumped to the lake and walked over the water. Ichigo knew that shinigami and high riatsu beings practically could fly but ninjas walking over the water was somehow cooler. Ghosts don't touching the floor was to be expected, humans don't sinking in the water, that was amazing.

"When do I learn to do that?" He said as he pointed with his head at Killer B feet, that were still over the water.

"Ya really don't have Ninja training, do ya?" Killer B gave him a white grin before making a jump towards Ichigo side, failing over his two feet without raising any dust "Do ya know what chakra is?"

Ichigo just blinked in confusion.

* * *

Kon woke up with all his muscles aching and his head in disarray. Something wasn't right... He listened to his heart and then he opened his eyes.

He raised a hand in front of the eyes. It was almost like Ichigo's, but Kon had been enough times in the substitute shinigami body to recognize the feeling, and something was really wrong with the body apart from the ache.

He would have screamed but a hand was fast over his mouth and a familiar face loomed over him, in the darkness of the night he could only make out the features of spiky hair and a permanent scowl.

"Listen, Kon...don't make any sound. Don't even nod or anything... Can you sense it? There is someone else in the room" the mod Soul blinked and stretched his senses just to feel an unknown riatsu "I just need to walk, you just sleep, understood?"

Ichigo tone was serious and Kon nodded even if he didn't had any idea of where he was or what was wrong with the body. As everything ached, so he went to sleep again.

And that was his normal rutine during two days, until Ichigo decided to use his pill on the afternoon.

"OK, I'm going out. Remember, pretend to be sick until I return...Ninjas gets sick? Don't they?" the shinigami asked his friend Chad, that was behind Ichigo and in front of Kon, so the body of Ichigo was facing his friend and they looked as if they were talking.

Chad raised a thumb up and Ichigo answered with the same sign.

"Ninjas?" Kon muttered and tried to grab Ichigo sleeve but the boy was away in a fast succession of shumpos. "What the..."

* * *

...

Even if riashi was different, Ichigo still found soaring in the sky being the same. He was free and above everything on the ground, like if those things and him were in complete different places.

Ghosts, hollows and shinigami, fights to the death and enemies lurking in the shadow, even before changing dimension, his life was like a manga character, unreal and belonging to another plane of existence than the rest.

It was something he didn't like to think about, but when the alternative was thinking about Bach destroying the world he had very little to pass the time on his travel towards Konoha.

He focused more energy on his steps and tried to quiet his thoughts a little, focusing in the trees below and the small figures that jumped on them. More than once he saw small skirmishes but he found no reason to stop them.

Finally, after two hours of shumpo, he was back at Konoha gates. The two men on the inside post looked pretty bored, unable to see Ichigo they were just waiting for someone visible to cross the gates.

"Have you heard, another body was stolen from the graveyard" one the ninjas said to the other, more to make small talk than any need to share information.

"Yes, I'm surprised no one has been captured. Do you think it was Oro..."

Ichigo didn't bother to listen their small chatter. Instead he headed towards the riatsus of Uryu and Orihime.

He stopped outside a small house with a very nice front yard. It didn't look to fit with Aizen's bland tastes. It lacked enough white and minimalist touches so Ichigo hesitated to get inside.

Ichigo was wondering what to do, when the wooden door opened and there was Uryu, the Quincy just waved Ichigo to get inside and the shinigami walked in.

The place was pretty empty and only had an oven, a small freezer and a cupboard. On the floor there were a lot of books and scroolls in boxes.

Orihime ran to him, she was almost bouncing and giving Ichigo a shinning smile, one of her hands was waving to him too. "Hello, Ichigo! How have you been?"

"Hi!" Ichigo answered, relief flowing over him to see after seeing her fine. Uryu leaned against the door watching the scene, completely safe and sound too. At least Aizen hadn't done anything to his friends "I'm fine, are you fine, Orihime?"

"Yes! Aizen has not been as I expected.. Grimmjow has behaved...and Uryu and me normally share three shifts on the hospital, so I'm almost always with him" Orihime had a thing for always jumping from one point to another, and Ichigo was grateful for that. She covered all the bases lousy but fast.

"Do you want something to eat?" Uryu passed Ichigo and turned to the fridge.

"Yes. And some water"

* * *

Aizen arrived half an hour later and Ichigo had to do almost a double take. The man looked half dead, his skin was pale and his lips were white, the eyes were reddish and his steps were almost uncoordinated.

"So, you have arrived, Ichigo Kurosaki?" His voice was still as smooth as ever "Next time bring the gigai with you, I would like to analyse it. Come!"

Ichigo wanted to ask his friends what happened to him, but knew it wasn't the right time.

The ex-Captain lead him to the basement and whispered a kiddo that made the ground part away, showing stairs to a secret laboratory. Urahara underground lair had been much more bigger. Aizen's was so small and..

"I had been busy, pretty few time to expand the facility" Aizen said before Ichigo could made any remark and then the man began to talk again in a pretty arrogant voice "I, alone have to cast the kiddos, design the layout, the ingenery and the building, adding to the fact I have to make more sustainable gigais for three beings with high riatsu using as base bodies that are different than the ones in our world. And lastly I have to work as a doctor, I believe you can understand the deficiencies at the moment"

Ichigo nodded. Feeling sorry for Aizen again. Even if the man had sounded arrogant and smug, and there was a small cooky smile on his face, overworking himself made Aizen lose his edge in acting.

Poor lonely Aizen, working alone Aizen. Feeling undepreaciated Aizen.

Ichigo had to divert his gaze to stop any sign of pity crossing his face, his eyes found a body in a vertical tub, it looked almost faceless and without any distinctive signal on its skin.

"That would be your gigai" Aizen opened the tub and the water flowed to the ground, wetting Aizen sandals. The man hands catched the body before it dropped and carried it to a table, Ichigo observed there were other tubes, two had marks with Grimmjow name on it, another one Ichigo's and on the end of the room the last two tubes lacked label "This time the synchronization would take time, Grimmjow was unconscious eigth hours and five minutes. It's for the better, your last gigagi was more likely poisoning you, but after research in Grimmjow's and my own gigai I have been able to make something more fitting for the spiritual body"

Ichigo looked at Aizen sick form again. He couldn't clash swords, so the man Soul was out of reach, but he suspected the man was in pain. Aizen riatsu was probably bigger than Ichigo's, and from his memory he could remember the older man tainted energy, even before the Hogyaku.

"I'm fine, Ichigo Kurosaki. I too will change gigai in a while so what I have done to this body doesn't matter"

The teen just smiled and Aizen eyebrows raised at that.

The older shinigami called out for Orihime and once the girl and Uryu were downstairs Ichigo went inside the gigai, feeling drowsy and his eyelids heavy. Aizen watched everything from the other end of the room, in another table, he had his gigai ready and Orihime had put a shield between her group and him.

He had to do the shift fast.

* * *

Ichigo woke up in a soft bed, he could see the wall of the neighbor's house outside the window and he felt pretty calm. He raised a hand in front of his eyes and looked at a perfect imitation of his real one.

"Good morning! Ichigo!" Orihime entered the room carrying a plate of food "Did you sleep well?"

"Uhmm" Ichigo mumbled, and the girl just nooded, leaving on the night table the plate "It's Saturday, so I have to work from seven to four, Uryu is with me...haha, the hospital schedule is a chaos"

Orihime bid him farewell and Ichigo just stared at the celling.

Ichigo breathed hard and finally raised out of the bed, at the other side of the room there was a bed with girly sheets and the one he was in had a Quincy cross. Ichigo almost dropped to the ground when he noticed it.

He had to rationalize that it was quite obvious that Ishida and Orihime shared room, after all they could be killed by Aizen or Grimmjow if they were alone... Yes that was it.

He still felt rage towards it. Darn, it was all Aizen fault.

Ichigo decided to eat and after that he went searching for the man, he felt more aggravated that he had to borrow Ishida's clothes.

He walked about half an hour before finding the overlord eating on a food stand, all the traces of tiriness gone and fresh as spring water.

"Good morning, Ichigo Kurosaki"

In the big list of reasons to hate Aizen, the man feigning modals was pretty high. He wanted to punch that mocking face but when it was on his 'kind mode' it was almost impossible.

He sighted in defeat.

* * *

Naruto was walking on the street, his small wallet almost empy and yet another exam at the corner of the month. He would make it somehow and be Hokage!

He halted in his steeps when he saw the strange man of a few days ago on a food stall. His wavy brown hair was different to the normal straight hair of Konoha, enough to make it noticeable for Naruto even at the distance. The man was talking with a younger person. A teen with orange hair and a frown on his face.

Naruto got nearer to listen to them. His Ninja skills were good enough to not be noticed by civilians like them. But before he could get close the young man cocked his head a little and his eyes pierced at Naruto form. He said something and the old man turned to look at Naruto.

At first, the stranger had a poker face, but once he saw Naruto his features became warmer (at least on Naruto eyes). The friend of the old man whispered something and went away.

The boy observed the welcoming face of the man, from the tender smile to the softness in his eyes. He resembled the Old Hokage when the grandpa wanted to talk with Naruto. It was an invitation to approach.

Naruto walked confidently to the old man once he couldn't see the carrot head. He didn't have any idea of what he was going to do once he approached the man, but Naruto was never stopped by that before.

"Hello, old man!" He said as he sat on the chair next to the foreigner, the waiter gave Naruto one of those looks and ignored him. He wasn't bothered by that at all, he told himself. Even then he smiled with more force than necessary.

"I'm Sosuke Aizen, that's how I prefer to be called" the stranger introduced himself without losing his warm voice.

Naruto blinked before nodding. The man was bookish or something, so he expected being corrected in his manners sooner or later, but the soft kindness was surprising.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I'm going to be the next Hokage! Believe it!" He introduced himself loudly and some of the people in the other end of the stall began to whisper beteween them.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Naruto Uzumaki" Aizen said with a smile, his brown eyes having a ligth in them, and Naruto felt a torrent of pride swelling in his chest. He had been recognized! His dream have yet to be seen as a clown dream at that moment. The man had said nothing about that, but in Naruto head the lack of mocking or condescending smile was enough proof that his dream was taken seriously "Hokage? As the leader of this place?"

"Yep, I'm going to be one of them! And everyone will recognize me! Believe it!" He nodded proudly at his own idea and waited the man response.

"I take you are going to study to be a ninja, am I right?"

"Already am!" Naruto gave himself a fist in the chest as he said those words. From the corner of his eyes he catched Aizen smile fadding and he felt lost at the change of demeanor.

"How old are you, Naruto?" Aizen asked with a serious voice.

"Twelve.. Why ol..I mean, why Mr. Aizen?" Naruto had been asked that same question before. He felt a small chill on the pit of his stomach. being born the same year (and day) of the kyube attack was apparently bad, because once people knew that they gave him dirty looks. As if he was tainted.

"You are quite young" the man shacked his head and his smile returned "You become Ninja until being sixteen or eighteen..no?"

"No. In two months more I will become a true ninja" Naruto felt at ease talking about something he knew but others didn't "At thirteen everyone should be out of the academy and become a genin"

"I see. Do you want anything to eat?"

Naruto answered with a fast "yes" and Aizen asked the waiter to bring the boy the dish he wanted. The woman was almost unable to hide her disgust at Naruto and for a brief moment he feared that Aizen would notice and put distance between them.

Instead, the man made ignored the women and did more questions about the ninja curriculum and about what was expected of Naruto outside the Academy, listening to Naruto with interest and making him feel more recognized than ever.

* * *

At the night, in a empty place, Ichigo was inside his gigai and near him Orihime stod, watching her friend with a little of melancholy.

"Give my regards to Chad!" Orihime said as she waved Ichigo, the evening wind made her long hair fluter and the smile on her face was as honest as always so he mirrored her expression and nooded.

"Tch!" Grimmjow growled from his spot a few meters away from Ichigo, his white Espada uniform and the sword almost gave Ichigo a bitter taste on his mouth. They were allies and Orihime could defend herself, but there were still bitter memories of Grimmjow piercing Rukia gut with glee. The Arrancar was looking away as he said "The coast is clear, no Soul around us, so get out of the fake body and let's fight"

Ichigo wanted to laugh at that. Aizen orders were getting out of the city unnoticed and for that he needed to use shumpo and carry the gigai over all the way from the clear they were to Kumo. Fighting wasn't in the plan, and Ichigo was glad of that.

Aizen had odd ways to amuse himself, and he could pretty well planned a fight in the middle of the city, but this time the crazy man just delivered the orders and went to his lab.

Ichigo used his badge and catched the gigai before storming out of the village.

The guards at the gate only felt a small break of the wind, but no chakra was perceived on their radars.

* * *

 **To be continued.**


	5. Deceiver face

**Deceiver face**

Ichigo stretched in his new gigai, feeling the joints pop and the oxygen flow in the body. He was glad for the improvement but still missed his old/normal body.

Killer B was watching him from afar, writing something in a small notebook and Chad was lifting weights. It was a pretty calm day without any water clone trying to chop out his head so Ichigo was pretty happy for the tranquil serenity of the morning.

That is, until he felt a riatsu near them. Ninjas were good at hiding their presence, but Ichigo was long ago a top tier shinigami, and whatever technique used to hide chakra required use of spiritual energy that felt similar of a Hollow's. So ninjas would been more effective against Ichigo if they didn't try to suppress their chakra.

Ichigo pulled out his sword (a thin katana) and dashed towards the tree the ninja had jumped in, the man, noticing he had been spotted made signs with his hands and suddenly he was surrounded by smoket.

When the jutsu was finished, the person in front of Ichigo was a dark skinned, tall young man, with brown bangs hiding his eyes. The ninja had took the form of Chad and Ichigo had to jump back to take back his breath.

It wasn't Chad, his friend was twenty meters behind him and Ichigo knew that what he was looking at was only a trick. Still, the same square face and dark brown hair, even the gray uniform had been imitated perfectly. He could not cut someone that looked the same as his best friend.

He hated emotional plays like that. People messing with his senses and using his friends against him. It was like Tsukishima all over again.

Ichigo thighed the grip on his sword and closed his eyes, using his riatsu senses instead of his eyes. He leashed forward, the ninja did the same and attacked with a katana, Ichigo felt the edge of a katana gracing his neck as he barely dodged the swing. Then he sensed the ninja free hand going to his pocket and then a kunai was trowed towards his chest.

He felt the same razor of the shuriken on his skin and decided to go for the kill. He had planned to subdue the enemy, but at the level of power inside the gigai, he was unable to keep the struggle going. So he took two steeps back and prepared to stab the other in the stomach (no bones there to protect the organs).

The ninja saw the attack coming and blocked with his sword. And Ichigo touched towards, trying to make the man lose his equilibrium and next he retreated and opened his eyes.

The ninja was still using Chad face and form, even if he himself was smaller. Just watching him gave Ichigo a bad taste in the mouth.

"Killer B!" Ichigo screamed, trying to keep the anger out of his voice "Is this one of your stupid exams?"

"What da ya mean?"

So, it wasn't a stupid Ninja training thing. That would mean that the man in front of him was indeed planning to kill him, there was no hesitation in the blood lusting first attack, but Ichigo knew the man was Killer B friend. He had sensed it.

Ichigo hated his life, one thing was sensing people hearts in the zampakto, after all they were part of the soul itself, but with normal weapons? That was borderline insane. It had never happened before.

"Let's call the day off" Ichigo told the ninja "I don't know who you are. But you are Killer B's friend, aren't you?"

The man narrowed his eyes, still looking as Chad, and Ichigo gritted his teeth and watched as the real Chad and Killer B approached with their guards still up.

The ninja glanced at Killer B and ran away, letting only a smoke of dust where he had been.

"Ya let him escape?" The older Ninja asked with a hint of confusion "My bro won't be happy, yo"

Ichigo shrugged.

"Just tell him that the next Ninja he sends to prove me is going to be captured or killed"

Killer B tensed at the last word, probably wondering how real the threat was.

Ichigo sighed and began to walk away. Moments later Chad followed, they had trained enough for a day, that's what Ichigo said to himself just to not go to the Kumo leader office and demand no more tricks.

Just thinking about what happened made his blood boil.

He meant it. He didn't care if one of his wannabe murderers where kumo ninjas, if they swing to kill him again, and Ichigo couldn't subdue them, then the world would have a ninja less.

* * *

Orihime was eating ramen alone, well, there were two ninjas eating in the same ramen stand and there was the cook and his daughter on the other side of the counter, but she had no friends to talk with.

Ninjas were different of what Orihime imagined. She had pictured them as black clad people that assassinated from the shadows in cold blood. Instead they liked to use a lot of colors in their wardrobe and were loud and chatty.

For example, the man next seat. He had his black hair in a cupcut and bushy eyebrows. He was in a green body suit and was challenging the other in a spicy contest; the other ninja was wearing a grey uniform with a green vest, she had figured that was the standard ninja uniform, but the real give away was the headbands with an stylized leaf covering his left eye.

The headbands were cool, and she found herself daydreaming about having one and going in funny ninja missions like rescuing a princess or defeating dragons. It would be fun.

She stopped her daydreaming and began to search for the money to pay. She needed to go to the Hospital. She was required to save people without using her powers so she was better not slacking off.

"There was another theft body" one of the ninja commented off handling and Orihime heart skipped a beat, but she didn't stop what she was doing (searching money in her wallet). They wouldn't be able to figure out.

She paid and began walking away, barely hearing one of them say a Hyuga would be put to watch.

She had no idea of what a Hyuga was, but it would be better to inform the rest of her "team". She wondered if the ninjas had any real chance to catch a ghost, after all, they were magical ninjas.

At the dinner, in the appartment, she informed everyone what she heard.

"A Hyuga? Is that a ninja rank?" Uryu asked puzzled and then watched Aizen shake his head.

"They are a noble family with a 'Kekkei Genkai' or blood limit" he smiled kindly as he explained what he meant "There are chakra abilities that, as Quincy, pass from a generation to the next. The ability varies from clan to clan and the documents that study them are well guarded. Retfully, that means we have to figure out what the Hyuga blood limit is the hard way"

Aizen eyes went towards Grimmjow and the Arrancar stirred. In his new gigai he had the same blue hair than before and his canines were bigger, but even if Aizen looked harmless, the hollow always felt a whisper of a shiver when the shinigami looked at him.

"Grimmjow, you will go to the graveyard. The Hyuga has white eyes, just go and observe" the man said in even voice, his face calm and composed.

At midnight, Grimmjow went out, leaving his gigai behind in the living room. Orihime tried not to think about it.

* * *

Hige was a member of the Hyuga branch, he had trained since being four, but he lacked the natural talent, even at his thirties he had gave up becoming a jonin and just made peace of being on the lower tier of the chunnins.

Even top tier graduates from the academy could outclass him in power, like his own blood relative, young Neji Hyuga did. As chunnin he was expected to do more dangerous missions that gennins so his life was always hanging on a thread when he went away from Konoha.

He still believed himself a winner. The freedom that serving Konoha gave him was something he couldn't have inside the walls of his family house, the gloomy place where even love was forbidden.

But he had Her. His teammate since his graduation and lover from more than a decade. She was his reason to be happy even in the most terrible missions.

At least, the one assigned to him that night was a stroll in the park, just watching over the graveyard in a shilly night and try to catch the responsables of the body theft.

It should had been easy, but luck wasn't on his side.

At one point in the night, the atmosphere grow heavier and behind him there a shadow materialized. With his Byakugan innactive he could barely make out the form of a man with a hole in the stomach.

He activated his blood limit without turning around, feeling that it was better to be discreet.

With his byakugan he could see muscles and even bones of the stranger. The guy even had one bone over his jaw. The man opened his mouth, forming words that made no sound. Had Hige being a more talented ninja, he would be able to read the lips.

He changed his technique a little, trying to make out the intruder features like hair and skin color instead of the masse of energy with body he was seeing. Just shifting a little the chakra influx in his eyes, he could finally see the "ghost". It decided to walk in front of the Hyuga, causing the ninja to stir a little. It was almost transparent and the contorn of his form was still blurry but he could see his form clearly.

The ghost like being was tall and had blue messy hair, feline eyes and a checky smile, an human that was more like a beast that a person. Suddenly Hegi felt as he was facing the death with his white eyes.

It was wrong.

He attacked the Death in an attempt to live, his palm hitting the almost transparent chest like if he could stop the heart of a ghost.

But ghosts don't need hearts, for blood doesn't run in them, and so his attack just made the ghost smile crooke and he was hit with enough strength he felt his soul scaping his body.

On the Death's doorstep he saw the white clad man form, finally looking as real as himself.

* * *

Grimmjow looked at the man dying form. He had not planned to kill him, just observe. Until he was attacked and he was surprised by the fact that it had hurt. Like a stab from inside. So he had changed his plan.

There was not any other soul around so...No..There was someone.

He turned around to watch Aizen, wearing the black bounds like if they were clothes and sporting a mask of calmness. The world around the other man turned darker, like if the light was absorbed in the void that was Aizen.

"Take would need to study this further"

Grimmjow wanted to scream at the other's words. There was no 'we', never was.

He took the still breathing body and started to follow Aizen wordlessly to a secret warehouse in the woods, Aizen lair that the Kurosaki's friends were unaware of.

It was a mid size wooden house, three point kunais hanged on the walls, and Grimmjow knew this one was just Aizen taking over someone place and building over it. Another of the ways that the shinigami used to take over. Aizen had even created a false blue sky because he wanted to force his construction not only in the earth grounds but in the high skies.

After closing the door, Grimmjow dropped the unconscious man in a mat and Aizen began a healing chant that casted a green glow. He observed it fascinated, almost in awe that there was no need for Aizen to kneel and he could do his kiddo standing.

The Hyuga eyes opened with a star. They were white and lacked pupils. It was creepy to see that in a human, there was a void in those white eyes that send a shiver on his spine, like if he was about to face a monster that would have his arms ripped again.

"Can you see us?" Aizen waved a hand in front of the man. Noticing how the man breath ragged and his white eyes followed the movement but his voice was not acknowledged "It looks like his eyes can see us, but he is unable to hear us. Those blood limits are interesting"

The man made a hand sign in his chest and the veins of his face almost popped up in his white skin, he made no movement with his head but the frow on his eyebrows was indication that something changed.

"Grimmjow, can you pull out your sword?"

The Arrancar did so and got satisfaction when the man breath halted a second. Aizen, for his part seemed concentrated in a thought, brown eyes watching all without any real focus. After some seconds he went to a cabin and began to search for something leaving the other two men to their own for a short time.

"Are you a ghost?" The Hyuga asked as he glared at Grimmjow, but his body had turned a little to Aizen. Expecting to be attacked, the ninja had his body ready to react at any of his enemies movements.

Aizen faced the man as he raised a notebook. In it was written "spirits" and the man had the most solemn face after reading it.

"How can you hold a note.." the man scolded himself before speaking again, his white eyes still staring at Grimmjow "Am I death? Are you shinigami?"

"What the!" Grimmjow growled and the man hand went towards a green bag on his leg.

Aizen smiled as he nodded, thrilled about the whole assunt. The Hyuga was wary about them, and didn't look as he knew who he was supposed to address, but when he saw Aizen rigth hand go to his hip and drawl out of nowhere a sword he shrieked.

"Look, Kyoka Suigetsu, this is my sword" Aizen said as he hold his sword upside down with the blunt side facing him. There was a little smile accompanying the action and the Hyuga was more confused than before.

Suddenly Aizen trow himself at the man, his sword already on his right hand, and the Hyuga stood up with a hand ready to hit the chest of the shinigami. Something was amiss. The man hit never connected, instead his hand opened and he grabbed a notebook.

Aizen was back at the same place and Grimmjow was finally aware that he had been victim of Kyoka Suigetsu again, the ninja too. But if catching the notebook was an indication, the ninja had been able to see through the facade at some point.

"I think, this deserves to conduct more tests, Grimmjow, would you be so kind to assist me?"

Grimmjow was curious about the Hyuga too, so he nodded with his head, eyeing the other man with his icy eyes and a big grin.

The man just stared.

* * *

..

Naruto was walking towards his house, after a tiring day on the school, he wanted to be back home and rest. All the people almost seemed to part away when he got near, as if he was cursed and being near him would sicken them.

He was human as them, but sometimes it was hard to believe it. Their cold stares or plain indifference, both pierced his heart and made him want to trow every gas bomb at them, just to give them a reason to see him.

The boy was about to search in his pocket for the small bomb when he saw a familiar person walking on the opposite direction.

The man had a mischievous smile and his hair was more flutter than the last time, but Aizen was a person that Naruto could recognize even if they had talked just two times.

Aizen appareance was different, he looked stronger and somehow his aura felt softer. It was strange. It made Naruto hesitate to approach him, to destroy the bubble of happiness and calm surrounding the man.

Naruto frowned and clutched his right hand. He tried to force himself to stand still. He wasn't sure what to expect. Hate or disdain.

"Good afternoon, Naruto!"

No one ever went their way to grate Naruto, it simply didn't happen. Of course, Naruto should have noticed. Aizen was an odd man. He was kinder that anyone else with a patience of a saint, even if people whispered when they saw him being nice with Naruto, the man would be unfazed.

The idea made Naruto felt at ease.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Aizen! How are you?" Naruto put his hands behind his neck and smiled broadly. He liked the attention.

"Marvelous, this morning has been pretty productive! And yours, Naruto?"

Naruto began to stroke his chin in deep tough, he had practiced with shirukens, but only four out of five had hit their target, it wasn't that great.

"Nothing much..."

From the corner of his eyes he saw two women scolding at him, and looked up at Aizen calm face. The man had noticed but dismissed it. A part of Naruto wanted to ask the man why he was still nice even if people gave him dirty looks but...

"You are quite the troublemaker, but I pride myself to look beneath the superfice. And you, Naruto, are a diamond in brute" Aizen answered the unspoken question, and upon seeing the boy wide eyes almost with closed eyes said "No, I don't read minds"

"Really!?" Even Iruka-sensei is not that good at reading people. Naruto closed his mouth and revised the words of Aizen again "A diamond in brute?"

"Yes"

"Like you?" Naruto stared at Aizen face, just for a small second the man face had gone darker and after that he raised an eyebrow, asking for the boy to elaborate with that small gest "I just..Ha!...Kind of got the feeling we were the same.."

Aizen blinked a few times in the way the teachers did when a kid got the wrong answer, but he chuckled a little before brushing it away "I'm more like the water; I have no form"

Naruto frowned in confussion at the criptic words. The man just smiled before looking at the street again.

"If you excuse me, Naruto, I have to do the supper. If I am fortunate, I might find one of my colleagues to help me"

"I can help you!" Naruto bounced over his heels, he wanted to talk more with Aizen, even if he did in riddles.

Aizen observed the kid blue eyes, fierce and strong, and nodded "The company would be appreciated, thanks Naruto"

* * *

 **To be continued.**

 **..**

 **Guys, I will make the time skip where Naruto is already a ninja...You know, as I want the duel between Aizen vs Itachi (because Kyoka vs Sharing); Ichigo vs Itachi (because old brother) and perhaps Uryu vs Orochimaru (because Uryu has to face crazy scientists). Anyway, thanks for reading and good luck!**


	6. In the eyes

**in the eyes**

Uryu entered the house and had to force his face to remain unfazed by what he saw.

There was a blonde boy dressed in an orange jumpsuit practicing calligraphy in the living room. Aizen was sat behind him looking pleased about the whole thing.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Ishida. I present you Naruto Uzumaki, as you can see, he is quite busy to introduce himself" Aizen said almost beaming.

The quincy knew the man was manipulative and a good actor, but he was still surprised by how genuine he seemed to be. But as his forced formality using "Mr" and "Miss", Uryu could perceive the facade, a monster disguised as a sheep. Or perhaps the sheep that was forced to become a monster (according to Ichigo, Aizen's loniless made him go crazy).

Uryu didn't muse on that, instead he decided to watch the unknown kid again. He had marks, like whiskers, on his cheeks, a round face and blue eyes. But there was something odd on his riatsu, the spiritual energy felt tainted. He adjusted his glasses but was unable to discern why the kid was surrounded with something that just felt wrong.

Much more wrong that hollow energy, human after all. So much unlike what the boy had.

"What are you looking at, four eyes!" Naruto almost snarled as he looked at Uryu and then raised a fist "Any problem?"

"Come on, Naruto. Uryu, I mean, Mr. Ishida didn't mean to be rude"

The quincy almost cringed by how Aizen addressed him. There should be a big wall of all kinds between the traitor and himself, instead the man was living under the same roof.

"I have to go!" He said before going outside. He was not going to stay around the strange kid with perverse riatsu and Aizen, the latter was a monster of all sorts.

He gritted his teeth before closing the door and as he finished to turn the handle, he felt someone watching him. His icy eyes searched for the person. He couldn't see him but his riatsu sensing did.

A ninja.

He walked to meet Orihime, noticing that the ninja didn't follow him. So..Who was the ninja tailing?

* * *

"You really have talent for this" Aizen said after picking up all the calligraphy material "As you are a ninja, I expected a really good pulse, but you have much more. Innate affinity perhaps"

Naruto beamed at Aizen words. He had just wrote his name over and over, trying to make it as clean as possible, but somehow the foreigner found him amazing. It almost made him forget the laughs of his classmates or Iruka-sensei disappointed face. Or the four glasses boy that stared at him as if he was a monster.

"Is everything alright, Naruto?" Aizen asked as he closed his vault.

Naruto crossed his arms before answering with a loud "Yes!"

"Uzumaki is an interesting last name" the man said as he looked at one of the papers "Where does it comes from"

Naruto felt his eyes widen.

The Third Hokage had never told him anything more than the fact that his parents were ninjas. When he had been eigth, Naruto had wondered if he was even human. He imagined a kind mother and a brave father in a distant past. But, there was a nagging doubt in his mind. He had been born the same day than the Kyube attack, perhaps Naruto was the Fox itself. His last name just a fabrication and his skin false over his bones.

He hadn't think about that in years, but after Aizen remark he felt a shiver on his spine. He gulped before regaining his wits.

"Yep, the best last name ever, don't you think is pretty cool?" He gave the man his widest smile and put his hands behind his head.

"You have a really good name. It's a unique, so it should have meant a lot for those that gave them to you"

There was a hand over his head, human, kind, warm. And Naruto didn't knew what to do except stare at Aizen brown eyes, at first they looked so pure and open, like windows to a soul.

But then Naruto saw it. He was not sure of what, but he knew there was something in Aizen's soul that was both scary and familiar.

The weight over his head dropped and Naruto found himself following Aizen's hand.

"It's time to go"

"Wait" Naruto almost screamed to stop Aizen march towards the door.

"Your final exam is in a week, isn't it?" The man opened the door and motioned Naruto to leave "I believe you would do fine"

"Yes, I wil, believe it! Naruto said believing every word.

* * *

...

* * *

Uryu knew that the Naruto boy didn't mean good business. He had tried to get an answer of why Aizen invited him or took his time to teach the kid anything, but the shinigami had just said he found the boy amusing.

Orihime's theory was that Aizen was secretly the type of guy that loved to teach and was genuinely fond on Naruto. Grimmjow idea was that the kid formed a part of another convulted plan that only Aizen knew.

Whatever the case was, it had gone wrong.

Just two days after meeting Naruto, ninjas had arrived to their front door and began to search all over the place and had took Uryu and everyone else to an underground base without windows and he was forced to share cell with Grimmjow.

He didn't know why, but Uryu was certain the kid had something to do with the ninjas raid.

"This place is boring!" Grimmjow crockled his fists as he spat the words "What do you say, four eyes?"

"Aizen told you to stay put" Uryu answered coldly, a little offended by the hollow 'nickname'.

Before Grimmjow could get mad a riatsu approached the cell and both men could see a white haired ninja standing outside, one black eye visible and the other hid under his headband.

"Isn't Aizen your sensei? " The man asked with a mocking smile.

"He is a good doctor" Uryu voice was even and his hand played briefly with his quincy cross. For some reason the ninjas had not searched them trought, probably because they had nothing against Uryu and the rest.

"Where do you say you are from?"

"A very far away place called Karakura. It's not in the maps and we are probably the only survivors" Uryu could barely hide his pain after saying those words. Ywach had probably destroyed everything already.

"Oh, I see" the ninja cheery tone was cruel, but the quincy expected that from a man that had as work murder and deceive "I need to talk with Blue here, so you stay put, Mr. Four eyes"

* * *

It was a nice round office, painted with nice green and pink colors, in the middle a man sat in his desk and looked at Orihime with the eyes of a grandfather.

The girl was confused so she decided to not move from the chair and be as quiet as possible.

"I'm the Third Hokage" the man finally introduced himself and Orihime eyes widened. She knew that the kages were the higher ups and the strongest ninjas with amazing feats under their belts. The man wasn't Yamamoto but he was strong "Your name is Orihime Inoue, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir!"

"I have noticed that your teacher, the doctor Aizen, has took a linking with a young boy from this village"

"Naruto?" Orihime cocked her head, she had seen the boy a few times, bouncing happily near Aizen, and the soul reaper had seem happy too. Perhaps. It was strange that the interrogation was because that little boy.

She scowled. She had in fact heard the name of Naruto before, whispered as if it was cursed, and she had noticed that almost every person trowed the boy dirty looks. Even their neighbor had asked her to never let 'Him' near the block again. But the man had moved away after it was discovered he was in a drug ring, so she had not bothered to think about that.

"Yes, you see, Naruto seems quite attached to the doctor. I just want to know, what does Aizen plan?"

She was taken back by the blunt question and the sadness on the old man eyes. She was uncertain of what to say. She closed her eyes and tried to figure out the almost picturesque image of Naruto and Aizen walking together.

"Naruto seems lonely" she said finally, her eyes downcasted "I think, I think that Aizen doesn't plan anything"

"You don't seem to trust him" the man said as he touched his white goatee.

Orihime smiled. That wasn't right. She trusted Aizen a lot. Her faith that he could make the portals to return home was the only thing that keep her for dreaming in a void world where Tatsuki, Rukia and every other of her friends was no more.

The man was crazy, but she knew that he wouldn't jeopardize his work for something as simple as to mess with an unknown kid. Naruto was in the shinigami plan as any other act of perfect citizen Aizen.

"What are you planning to do with us, sir?" She asked softly.

"Nothing. I just will give you a warning. Stay away from Naruto"

* * *

...

"So, that's what happened" Aizen said in a low voice, everyone on the living room stayed quiet. "It was about Naruto, it's certainly unexpected"

"The boy is creepy. Why did you bring him here?"

"Look out your tone, Grimmjow, you are useful, but not that much. Now, this briefing has been interesting, but I have more urgent matters to attend"

* * *

..

Sosuke looked at his machine again, it was supposed to capture wavelengths of the riatsu from the Sun flares. After all, he needed to find the right way to make the Sun's energy the source to form the dimensional rift.

But it wasn't working.

He had gone over the design twice, trying to figure out what was wrong. Perhaps he needed different materials that the one back in his world. The crystal he had created wasn't working. Or perhaps he had misacalcullated the range...Or...

He sometimes wished to be like Urahara or Mayuri. Somehow both of them could pull out artifacts out of nothing, with such easiness that made Aizen cringe. Putting something in a soul to hide it? Aizen had tried to do that so he could try to figure out the reverse mechanism, but his tries had been null.

Then there was Mayuri, making all his body of a special goo that could gather again in the laboratory of Central 12. The most Aizen accomplishEd was improving Szayazel experiment on Metischa, so the Hollow could return even from Soul Society.

To offend him more, Urahara had discovered the mechanism of the Garganta (the hollow way to create rifts between dimension) in a month. Aizen had worked on that years.

He liked to think that it was because Urahara and Mayuri had privileged information and almost never worked from the scratch. Unlike he, who had at most access to innacurate data about the hollow souls and knew of the Royal Guard about five paragraphs in an old book that dated even before he was born.

But, at the end, Sosuke decided that their science lacked sense. It would be materially impossible to do what they did in such a short time. Didn't they need to wait for the reactives to act? Even he couldn't make the sun to raise sooner (unless it was the false one in Hueco Mundo). But he had the idea that Mayuri and Urahara would... because...That was how things worked for them.

Aizen had to work hard for everything, to dirty his hands in ink and make a lot of field researches. He knew being bitter of struggling was below him, but nothing was working on his favor.

He had to be civil with the humans. Orihime was a warming creature, but he hated that she didn't hate him. Uryu at least behaved as expected but was very icy.

Then, there were the ninjas. The Hyuga had died and his body barely did anything to solve the mistery of how he could see them in spiritual form. It wasn't just chakra control and Aizen was sure it had to do with his white eyes, but before deciding to observe another Huyga he needed to make advancements in his machines.

At least, on the bright side of faking to care about people, Naruto had been amusing. A boy that everyone hated for some unknown reason, he would have searched it but he didn't wanted to dwell in the Ninja world or its political affairs. Naruto could be the bastard of a well liked person or the kid of a traitor, but he didn't deserve the hate.

Or being brainshawed to be a ninja at such young age...The world should be different. But it wasn't Aizen's fight.

He had one already, in Soul Society. Against everyone. The Ninja world could manage itself, it wasn't like the world of the Death were a powerful being could in fact make everything better by providing clean water to every corner of Rokungai and with a proficient ingenery could help families to reunite.

Making a better world wasn't impossible because lack of resources. It was done because when people weren't fighting over water then they would ask the shinigami to help them to get rid of those that controlled the after life for centuries.

The overlord that kidnapped kids or the one that forced every women to serve him. Shinigami turned blind eyes on it because money was as important in the afterlife as in the human one.

Aizen knew he wasn't the only one that knew how twisted the world was, but regretfully he was the only one with enough strength, smarts, and will to do anything. He could do more that those febles souls that were just food to lesser hollows, and unlike Urahara that enjoyed idle life, Aizen was willing to try and change it.

He looked at his machine and noticed it was burning.

"Perfect"

* * *

...

It was a full moon night with cold air. Like a bad omen, the moon was painted in a bright red.

Ichigo, Chad and Killer B were traveling to recollect some weapons in a nearby city. As it was night they were camping a few kilometers away from the road.

Just a few days before, Ichigo had been gifted a slender katana and he felt almost at ease with the weight of the sword on his hip. Using it had been natural, even if the katana didn't held his soul.

But somehow Ichigo got the feeling that something was wrong. He enhanced his senses until he felt a riatsu not that far away.

"Where are ya going?" Killer B asked loudly.

"To piss" Ichigo said without turning and almost jogged towards the energy.

He arrived to a lake, and in the middle of it a young man sat on a rock. The stranger had a black coat with red flowers and Ichigo could recognize a Konoha headband.

The man raised himself up and turned to face Ichigo with his red eyes.

* * *

 **to be continued.**

..

 _not lolscience for Aizen, well...Not that much._

 _Sorry for the people that like this fic enough to read it, but I had a bussy schedule. In a lot of ways I'm writing this fic to know if Naruto can talk no jutsu Aizen and have vs battles._

 _Until next time._


	7. Black Moon vs Red Moon

**Black moon vs Red moon**

The moonlight illuminated the silhouette of the Konoha ninja and made possible a dark reflection on the peaceful water. On Ichigo's eyes the scenary looked surreal, like if pulled out of a book. He almost expected a witch to appear and chant that something wicked was about to come.

Even without a witch, Ichigo knew that danger was imminent, so he raised his sword to guard his chest and be ready to make a counter.

The red eyed man jumped to the water in a quiet motion, so soft that the water didn't even ripple. Those eyes, bright like an animal, stared at him. Ichigo didn't blink, he was using a gigai so he couldn't afford an opening. If worst came to worst, his Shinigami pass was secured on the same side he had his sword sheath...Ichigo gripped his katana with more force, depending on his spiritual body all the time was far from ideal, he needed to trust in his new found skills at least a little.

The man aura thickened and Ichigo felt the strong killing instinct, not even a candle to Kenpachi's, but still dangerous for a new ninja as Ichigo.

Killer B had said he was genin level, the rockiest kind of ninja, and Ichigo recalled that only jonin, the highest ranked, could venture outside their villages alone. The Konoha ninja was alone.

The wind howled again and the ninja closed his eyes, just to open them a second later to show two black points on his irises. Ichigo remembered it being just one.

Before he could make sense of the change, the world darkened and Ichigo felt a stab on his gut. The ninja had somehow got behind him. He had not meet anyone that could supress their riatsu enough to do that kind of feat. Fast, yes, but even sonido, the fast step used by hollows, made in the arriving point a raise of riatsu.

Ichigo regained his mind fastly and trowed a vertical slash at the ninja.

The world was again illuminated by the red moon.

Instead of a body falling to the ground, Ichigo saw how the guy became crows and he realized that something was off. The reishi on everything felt muted and he couldn't sense any riatsu coming out from the birds. It was gengutsu.

He just knew the name of the hypnotic technique, but he had been busier trying to learn hand signs names to inquire about a lesson that Killer B planned for the next month.

Ichigo focused again, trying to find the riatsu of the ninja so he wouldn't be attacked when he was captured in the false world. He raised his spiritual energy to try to sense the ninja and without knowing fully how, he was back at the clearing in the same position he had been when everything began.

The ninja mouth was a thin line but unlike Ichigo, that was breathing heavily, the ninja looked as stoic as moments ago.

"You have talent" the man said with an icy tone as another black dot formed on his eyes "But not enough"

Ichigo felt his heart being stabbed but couldn't move. Everything was so abrupt that he could only stare at the full moon.

* * *

He was walking in a pathway of an hospital. He could see the moon outside, casting it's red light over the walls. There were sounds of water dripping every step he took, so he glanced behind him and saw a path of blood that went to him.

He looked at his feet and could see a muddle of blood forming between them. He was injured, he couldn't feel it, but there was a memory of an event: merciless and dreadful in a world of white sand and eternal night.

His eyes widened before his left hand went to his chest. Instead of flesh he found a gaping hole. The walls of the hospital blowed away and he was on the top of a white building, the scene was familiar. He was barefoot and on the top of a pulse, he saw a black figure looking down at him.

His chest was still open and he was feeling his mind going blank. It hurt. His mask, his heart, his skin and bones, he was going to die in the world tainted of red, away from his home and with the hollow riatsu surrounding him.

 _But this time his senses didn't detect any riatsu. There was not any hollow or any dome. Gengutsu!_

Ichigo blinked before focusing in the black haired man again. It wasn't a bat like creature with skin harder than iron. Instead, it was a raven human, made of soft flesh that could be cut as if was paper with his sword.

The place was inside his mind, and Ichigo realized that even if the other man could pull out tricks like changing world after world, the ninja had no idea how sensing riatsu felt like. And did not have any idea of shumpo.

Ichigo apparead behind the illusion version of the man in a blink and the ninja became dust when the sword smashed the pillar. Ichigo could sense the muted riatsu in a place that was out of his reach (the real world) but he had the feeling that the ninja was more dangerous in flesh than in the confines of his mind.

He would crush the ninja in the gengutsu. If that was possible then Ichigo was sure he could pull it out. He localized the stranger man again, staring at him with those red eyes, and the world changed again to a very different scenario.

Ichigo was in a village that had a mountain with carved faces. Ichigo recognized the place as Konoha and wondered briefly if the ninja planned to use his home landscape as an advantage in their battle of minds. As always the world was tainted by red, but this time even the ground was bleeding.

Ichigo almost backed off when he noticed that it wasn't the ground. There were bodies. Unlike spiritual ones, this ones were more like the people in the normal world, the smell almost sweet, if death were capable of being sweet. It was mixed with the strong metalic taste of blood. The combination was repulsive.

He had to close his eyes and when he did that, he felt his arm being cut. He knew it was a gengutsu, but the burning sensation that traveled all his body felt real and he almost felt bilis on his throat when his mind couldn't control his left hand.

It was still there, he knew it was just an illusion, but his brain couldn't fully process the illusion and it overlapped what Ichigo knew with what Ichigo believed. He closed his eyes and after a deep breath he could felt his fingers again.

After opening his eyes he found himself at the same place, just this time he could see the massacre before it began, could see the old couple closing their store just to be murdered in cold blood a moment later, then a young man with a goatee ran towards them just to have his head sliced by a younger version of the red eyed ninja.

It was an illusion, his mind screamed, but his soul howled with the need to stop the carnage unfolding in front of his eye. Ichigo swung his katana towards the ninja neck, but when his sword touched the ninja, the man vanished in smoke. Ichigo searched for him, his eyes scanning the area. Finally, he found the ninja inside a house, Ichigo was able to watch trought the window a thin woman falling to the ground.

Then the ninja apparaed two houses away, at the top of the rooft and went inside the place. Ichigo forced himself to follow him inside. He didn't turned to see the body, instead he focused in the retreating killer.

"Stop!" Ichigo screamed, but the ninja ignored him as he went towards the next house. Ichigo managed to get inside at the same time that the red eyed man.

There was a black haired girl in what looked to be light blue pijamas. She was just out of childhood and had a blue ribbon tying her hair in a ponytail. Karin, his sister, had used one like that on a birthday party a few months ago.

He tried to grave the girl and snatch her to safety. She was less than wind on his hand, even as she turned to _smile_ at the ninja that would kill her. Ichigo closed his eyes, registering again the blue ribbon. He felt powerless and was unable to face another kill.

At the moment he closed his eyes, his leg was severed out and he felt to the ground patting. He was back at the beggining. Just after all began.

The moon was red, mooking him and everyone. He knew it wasn't real, that those people screaming and dying were just a creation of the pychopat ninja to torture him. Even with that knowledge, he was unable to stop his heart hurting when his sword was unable to help any of those persons.

He raised his riatsu, trying to crush the ninja with his energy. Or to break the illusion and get away from the smelt of death.

The illusion crumbled as he saw the old woman body hit the ground soundless.

Ichigo felt to his knees and barely could put his hands to stop his face to hit against the ground. The world was real, even if the moon was still red and he could smell blood. His eyes searched and found that his upper arm had a deep horizontal cut.

He barely composed himself before a kunai was trowed at his head. He jumped a meter away and finally could see the ninja cold face. He looked fresh even after killing all those people. The girl had not been older than fourteen and even then she was dead.

 _Her small frame crumbled to the ground, to a crimson pool in a lonely room._

His chest felt heavy and even if he saw kunais going to him, his mind was unable to process the after images of the illusion.

There was a crashing sound, and next thing Ichigo was aware about, Chad was standing in front of him. His back turned to Ichigo as he faced the ninja.

"Are you fine, Ichigo?"

"Yes" Ichigo impulsed himself to stand up "Be careful, he can do gengutsu"

Chad nodded before launching himself towards the ninja, he was unable to walk over the water, but with his fast speed there was no need. In a fast action, he hit the ninja in the chest without even using his Fullbringer.

The murderer was pushed away various meters until he crashed against a tree at the same time that Chad sunked in the water after losing his momentum.

The ninja managed to stand up and I higo could see a small trail of blood on his mouth. He counted that as a victory.

Before he could go after the ninja and finish him once and for all, the other man made four had signs in fast successions and banished in a puff of leaves. His riatsu gone with him.

"Ichi, are you fine?" Bazz-B jumped at his side "Was that...A rouge nin?"

"A rouge nin?" Ichigo asked as he walked to the lake to help Chad to get out of the water.

"Rouges are ninjas not affiliated to any village, traitors. He had a Konoha headband with a slash, I think"

"Yes, he did" Ichigo nodded "And had red eyes"

Bazz-B seemed lost on thought for a second. Next thing his strong hand went to tap Ichigo on his shoulder.

"Congratulations, you have survived the S-class rouge, Itachi Uchiha" KillerB said with that singing tone he liked to use.

Ichigo and Chad enchanged looks, they didn't recognize the name, but by the sound of it, the man had a fame.

"What did he do?" Chad dared to ask.

"He killed every member of his clan" the older ninja told them in a solemn voice "In just one night, he murdered all the Uchiha"

Ichigo felt his blood run cold. The massacre he had witnessed, it had been real. Before he could think more about bodies of innocent people, his vision darkened and everything faded to black.

 **to be continued**


	8. Like a shadow

**Like a shadow**

"It doesn't look good" Ichigo muttered as he saw the gigai green skin. The kunai of the fight had been poisoned and now his fake body was dying. Chad had used the shinigami badge to free Ichigo and the soul reaper found himself just a little dizzy after that "Will not come back to it"

"It will die" Chad said as he scanned the empty room and the beeping machine keeping the gigai alive. As much as a soulelss shell could be.

"Ah! This is not good! Do you think I should go to Aizen? I think he had another gigai ready, but how will I explain this? And then Aizen would want to have the gigai! Uff! Any ideas?"

Chad sighed before muttering a low no.

"Who are ya talkin with?" KillerB entered the room and watched the room, his shades hiding his eyes, Ichigo wasn't sure what they were looking at. Finally the ninja walked towards Ichigo gigai "I'm sorry, buddy, but don't worry! My bros are working at it...His stats don't look good"

KillerB pursed his lips and turned to face Chad with lowered shoulders.

"Do you trust us?" Chad asked softly, one of his eyes showing below his long hair. The ninja nodded and Ichigo's friend decided it was time for risking all for all "There is a powerful healer, a friend of us, that can fix Ichigo. But I need to carry his body away from here, our friend is far away"

The ninja crossed his arms and nodded in agreement "You are asking me to let you go even if you two are now ninjas of this village..Will you come back?"

"Yes"

"Then, just return, the two of you, alive, I will arrange it for this night. Don't let brother know, would ya?"

Chad raised a thumb up.

* * *

.

* * *

Naruto sat on the swing, looking at the other kids, all of them surrounded by their parents. They looked proud and accomplished, eager to face the future. So much unlike him.

Even after someone had believed in him, Naruto had been unable to succed. As he watched all the people, he wasn't sure if the lump on his throat was because Aizen was absent or because he was grateful the man wasn't there to witness Naruto fail.

He decided that being there, in front of the school, was annoying and got up without minding the parents whispers. He began to walk towards his empty house in slow steps, feeling defeated.

"Naruto!" Misaki, one of the two senseis of his class stopped him at half of the way, his smile was kind and he had a soft aura around him "Do you want to know something... It's a secret exam to become a ninja"

The last sentence was said lowly and the boy felt that the tone was perfect for the occasion. It sounded as a real ninja mission.

After Misaki-sensei told him the instructions, Naruto began to run towards the Third Hokage house, the old man wouldn't expect Naruto to pull his secret perverted jutsu, and with that he would "steal" a scroll and learn a technique like no other and then he would become a real ninja.

In the way to the Hokage house he saw Sasuke, the other orphan of his class. The boy was walking slowly. For a second Naruto thought to stop and congrulate him, after all the Uchiha had an empy house too, but he fastly got rid of the idea. Sasuke was super popular and loved by everyone, probably Naruto would look as one of his fangirls and honestly, the other boy was overrated.

Sasuke just stared at the back of Naruto when the blond boy passed him and continued his travel.

* * *

Uryu shivered as he passed the Uchiha compound doors. It was almost at the outskirts of the city and the quincy had never seen any soul in there. Even worst, the place had a dark aura that prickled on his skin. He had never entered the gloomy place, but the pharmacy of the Civil Hospital was almost always runing out of medicine and a drugstore near the compound had discounts for the Hospital.

He didn't like to be the errand boy either, nevertheless there was no one else who could do it. Or more accurately, it was for the best he did that. In secret, Aizen and him were studying the medicine, and the system of buying them at evening, studying some of them at night, and delivering the left overs in the morning had worked good so far.

Still, as he stared at the inside, he could feel something akin to bound spirits suffering, there was no one of course. Whatever dynamic there was in the magic Ninja world, neither pluses or hollows could form outside their material body.

"Move out" a young teen with dark hair demanded out of nowhere and Uryu raised an eyebrow in confusion as his eyes falled on a raven haired teen "You are in the middle of the entrance"

Uryu looked at the Uchiha's door and then at the boy. He had heard there was a young prodigy that was an Uchiha, Sasuke. But the place looked very dark and desertic, so the quincy had believed no one lived there and the prodigy was in another complex.

He step out without saying a word but before he could walk away the kid clenched his hands and turned to face Uryu with open hate.

"The Uchiha's compound isn't an amusement park!" Sasuke said that with a voice that tried to be even but failed spectacularly. The quincy was too old for getting mad at kids mood swings so he shughred dismissively.

"I'm out of your way, you can go inside" Uryu said in a mooking voice but something in the black eyes of the kid made him change his tone "You don't want to go inside, do you?"

Sasuke stared at him hardly, almost emanating his hatred out of his body. It was sad to see. If there were ghosts, Uryu was sure they would had been crying for the child. Uryu almost could hear them and out of habit his eyes went to the dark place, searching people that weren't there.

"What are you staring at?!" Sasuke snapped Uryu out of the soundless cries and the quincy found himself watching the boy again. The kid was grinning bitterly but his voice was calm as he spoke again "There is no one inside"

"I noticed. Not even a ghost"

The Uchiha raised an eyebrow at the commentary but just in case checked inside with his eyes. Uryu wondered if he lived there all alone and why.

"I'm the last Uchiha, as I'm out, it's obvious no one would be there" the boy said in an iron tone, trying to keep his resentment at bay with more success than the first time.

"The last?"

"So, you aren't from here" the boy sighed and hid his hands on the pockets of his shorts "I'm the last Uchiha" that explained a lot.

"I'm kind of the last too" Uryu knew he was being to open, probably the place was taking its toll on him because his normal rieishi absorption was playing against him, even without form spiritual energy could have something that tasted as feelings, if feelings had any taste. Uryu decided to keep talking even after realizing that "My family had something like blood technique too. Now, there a just two of us left"

"Two?" The boy asked aphrensive, but he was looking at Ishida with a new found interest.

"My father. The rest are dead" and their king was planning to destroy the world.

"Hmm...The other of my kind..He is a man that I must murder" Sasuke eyes were hard and full of bitterness, but the boy reminded himself and changed of theme "Your abbility, what does it do? Does it let you see ghosts and you are a sort of priest?"

"Kind of" Uryu adjusted his glasses "If you want, I can make some charms for this place. I sense people suffering, not their ghosts, more like shadows, but I think there is something that can be done"

"And how expensive that would be?"

Uryu had talked with enough people and Aizen was very talkative, so the quincy knew that people believes in the afterlife were almost the same as in the real world, which meant that the boy was in enough dispair and grieve to believe in spirits and want to help them. He was trying to keep the last remains of people long go.

"Nothing" Uryu thoughts drifted towards Ichigo, Orihime and Chad, they would help whatever being that was suffering in the compound, and Uryu wanted to be like them with all his heart "From the Last to the Last, it's completely free"

Sasuke blinked and nodded "When? I will kind of be busy next week"

"Two days after this, at the evening"

* * *

Sosuke Aizen nodded off in his hospital office. In the short time he had worked in the place he had gone really far, he was good at making diagnosis and his patients loved his gentle aura.

The paperwork was always finished on time, the recommended books were read fastly and he had all his appointments arranged without problem. Reliable, smart and kind, all the time acting as the perfect man made everyone believe he was perfect.

He had sabotaged himself again.

In Soul Society he had been pretty efficient, and any moment when he acted out of character had people noticing it fastly and he had put his plans on hold just to finish the assignments with the perfection expected of him. And that meant that more works were encomended to his squad, because he was just that amazing.

Sosuke looked at the folders on his desk and began to read again. A patient with high leucocyte count and another that had deficiencies of magnesium.

Before he could read more details, he felt a ninja walking towards his office. The downside of having a gigai that let him walk around sick people was that his senses were dulled, but he needed the village at peace and producing without problem. The materials he needed for dimension travel wouldn't make themselves.

"Doctor Aizen?" A man with the regular ninja uniform and a headband covering almost all his brown hair asked from the open door "May I speak with you?"

"Yes, come in" Aizen closed the folders and stared at the man black eyes. It was unerving to know the human wasn't faking his manners even if he would go to Aizen neck without a single reserve and without any warning. Aizen had a facade to keep after all.

Either way, Sosuke would deal with the ninja.

"Am I right if I say that Naruto Uzumaki is an aquantice of yours?" The man asked in a clipped voice.

"You know I haven't seen him in a while. Did something happen to him?" Sosuke said everything in a secure voice. The man blinked once and Aizen talked again "What did he do?"

"Just his regular pranks, if you see him, you must inform about it immediately"

"Of course, I will do it" the ninja went away after a small bow and Sosuke decided to go back to work. He wouldn't side track musing about ninja affairs. Not until he did more research on their bodies.

* * *

Far away, in the forest, Naruto was running among the tress, trying to put distance between him and his hunter. He would had keep his run but words arrived to his ears and he stopped as them were creamed again.

"You are the Kyube!"

Naruto heard the words and turned around to face his enemy.

Just a little while ago, he had completed the mission of stealing the scroll and had even practiced a technique called Shadow Clone, or Kage Bunshin, he had believed he was nearer to be recognized as a real ninja of Konoha, instead, Misaki-sensei had apparaed and without warning had trow a kunai to Naruto head.

The boy had evaded it and ran away in confusion, that was until Misaki-sensei uttered those words and Naruto halted, prey of his burning emotions.

That explained a lot. In the worst possible ways.

He wasn't human. That's was the reason everyone hated him, just the murderer fox in human skin, was that? Didn't he deserve to live then?

Misaki aimed four kunais at Naruto as answer and the young teen had to put his arm to shield his head of three of them, the other one hit his leg. The pain didn't register, it was unamtering for his mind that was just swimming in questions.

His mind remembered the other kids could shoulders, the Hokage silence, the teachers eyes of disdain and the villagers hatred towards him. All because he was the Kyube, it should be a joke.

He looked at the blood ozooning from his arm, and he felt tears forming on his eyes as something warm travelled on his throat and he found himself grinning bitterly. It was funny to think that just a few weeks ago the most harm he had got was a deep cut of a kunai in all the fingers of his right hand.

 _"You are injured" Aizen had told him when he saw blood stains "Let me check"_

 _Naruto had ignored the injury half of the day, and had put a gauntlet to hide it from Aizen. They had kind of closed but reopened when Naruto moved his hand a little._

 _"It's not that deep, I can attend it here, it would be a shame if your calligraphy lessons are stopped by something like this, wouldn't it?" Aizen cleaned the injury and hold the injured hand between his after stopping the bleeding and putting bandages around the fingers. Aizen hands were warm._

Naruro blinked as he felt his warm blood on his gut and looked down to see a kunai incrusted on it. He removed it fastly, he still had calligraphy lessons to do and he would become a Hokage. His eyes were still crying as he gritted his teeth, ready to fight for his future.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto made a cross with the fingers of both hands and a horde of clones apparaed just as Iruka-sensei jumped into the scene, watching everything with wide eyes, but the boy just had someone in his sight "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, I will be Hokage! You jerk!"

 **to be continued**


	9. Teacher's gaiden

**Teacher's gaiden**

After the Fourth and Kushina's death, Kakashi had put as much distance as needed from Naruto. A part of him was afraid to see the fox instead of the kid; another part, to see just much Minato and Kushina to handle. (They were gone as everyone he loved, bodies in deep pools of blood).

Thirteen years later, everything changede.

Kakashi was doing a rutinal round one morning. From roof to roof and taking small breaks from time to time. It was on one of those breaks when he saw from his perch on a roof something that made him grow wary:

The blonde hair of the kid being touched by a big hand of an unseen man, Kakashi had to change his position to see better, the normal crowd of people on the street being an annoyances to see the man correctly. All he could see was a mop of brown wavy hair and that in itself was unnerving.

Naruto was a stupid kid, if rumors had anything to say, resourceful and a prankster he might be, a judge of character he wasn't. An adult approaching him and making a such friendly act was probably a ruse. Kakashi hengeg to look as a pretty bland citizen of Konoha going in his daily life, normal clothes and straight brown hair. Nothing that would drive attention to him.

He got near them and passed near them just a meter away, then he stopped outside a shop, making himself look as a person watching the offers in the vitral. His ears tuning out everything but the conversation of Naruto and the man even if they were behind them he could listen to their conversation.

"Iruka-sensei sounds like a nice teacher, I hope you aren't giving him any trouble" the man had a smooth voice, one easy to hear and be swayed by. It was not strange that a ninja in training failed for a trick like that. The perfect amicable voice that any Ninja wanted in his arsenal. The man had ropped Minato's son in a leash of lies and Naruto was bouncing inside it.

Kakashi just narrowed his eyes as he heard the boy happy tone, and from the vitral glass Kakashi could see the form of his target and Naruto.

"Haha, sometimes" Naruto had on his arms a lot of office material; the man hands were totally empty.

Kakshi clenched a fist. His mind racing with hate. His sensei kid wasn't a mule for a complete stranger with shady intentions. The foreigner was probably a spy wanting to get near to Naruto and take the Kyube.

The two began to walk again and moved away, Naruto talking about his essay of the Hokages in the most happy voice ever as the man walked calmly with the measured calmness of a saint.

Kakashi followed them until a person greeted the man by a courteous "Dr. Aizen", then the ninja decided to change his plan. He returned to finish his rounds and decided to investigate everything later.

* * *

The Office of Outsiders was the first place Kakashi went to search information of the mysterious man.

"Dr. Aizen? Yes, I have his forms and results in the next room. Isn't this nice? Such a nice Doctor working in our village?" the clerk eyes were shinning as she talked "He is a really nice guy. Before proceeding, can you lend me your carne?"

Kakashi showed his carne and the woman vanished for fifteen minutes before appearing again with some folders.

He was surprised that the man was so well remembered in the office, he had expected the man to be a crafty spy, difficult to remember even with a mask of perfect kindness. But he trusted his hooned gut feeling and began to read the yellow folders as soon as he sat at a table.

Sosuke Aizen, a forgneir of a destroyed village. He had enough medical skills to be granted a permit to work in the Hospital along with three of his apprentices. Two of them had been denied entrance and have to go to an unknown place, not even sending a letter in all the time since their rejection.

Foreigners in Konoha were always keep on a weekly watch the first four months, Sosuke Aizen wasn't different in that regard. His supervisor had pointed out the man skills in medicine and his good people skills. An "important new asset for the Civil Hospital".

If there was something Konoha needed were doctors that worked in the non-ninja population. The pay in Ninja affairs was better and chances of being killed in one of the two civilians hospitals was bigger that one might expect. There was not enough man-power to watch out those places so cooky ninjas that didn't want to go to the corresponding facilities would sometimes...be triggered and things went bad for civilians doctors.

In the last ten years six doctors had meet their fate in their patients hands.

There were other reasons for the shortage of civilians doctors, but Kakashi had never peered on them.

Kakashi looked at the photo of Aizen again, he had his lips in a thin line and his brown eyes were smart behind those glasses. Kakashi felt mad only watching that face, brown hair so unlike his sensei and sharp features that didn't had anything of the Fourth Hokage softness. If Kakashi remembered the smile on Aizen full lips he could not see any trace of his master small and soft smile.

Sosuke Aizen was so much of untrustworthy man as Minato had been trustworthy.

* * *

A few days later, Kakashi found himself spying Naruto, specially when around Aizen.

Naruto was like a little duck, following the foreigner at all places, carrying things and imitating the man formality.

Kakashi knew that Naruto was a very informal speaker, calling people old and ugly without meaning fully the insult, but every time the ninja found Minato's kid around Aizen, the boy would say Mister or Miss. It was sickening how much Naruto bended his nature to appease the foreigner.

"Soon I would get my headband, believe it!" Naruto looked up to Aizen, his eyes searching approbation from the man and Kakashi decided he had to cut their relationship. But first he did some reconoziment over Aizen "students".

* * *

"The A is for Apple, the B is for Beatle, the C is for Castle"

Kakashi decided to spy on the female apprentice of Aizen first, a busty orange haired girl. She was a beauty and her smile was bright with the happiness of a dreamer. She was singing a strange song as she walked the way home.

"Oh, Uryu! I'm glad to see you! Going to work already?" The girl greeted a raven haired man walking in the opposite direction.

"Yes. My shift is in another half hour" Ishida eyes briefly went up to the roofs, to the place that Kakashi had hided himself. At that angle the boy wouldn't see him, but Kakashi still noted the fact as strange.

"Miaw" a cat jumped near Kakashi and went down short after, the kid gaze following the white cat with interest "Isn't that Ponio? The neighbor cat?"

"Yes! I'm going to catch it! Good to see you Uryu!" The girl chased after the cat and the boy smiled softly to himself before returning his travel.

Even then, Kakashi put Aizen in the list of constant vigilance.

The man was dangerous, and it was Kakashi duty to protect his sensei son.

He walked to the Hokage Office and filled out a solitude.

"Kakashi, my friend" Mighto Guy said as he approached Kakashi "It's odd seeing my amazing rival requesting anything, it's good that you, my rival, is taking new approach for his work!"

"How is the investigation going?" Kakashi deviated the theme.

"No sign of the Hyuga. Neither us or the hunters have found any trace that he left Konoha" Migtho rested his chin on his hand before talking again "His defection on the middle of the night was unexpected, but isn't the first Hyuga of the Branch family to do it"

Kakashi nodded in aknoweledgement. Even with the more free life that being a ninja gave in comparison to being a servant, it was still stressful and full of grieve, things like runaways happened at least once every four year.

* * *

Finally, the Hokage took notice of Kakashi words and send for the group of foreigners to be called, on. The one that Kakashi decided to pick up to get answers was the raven haired one, Uryu Ishida.

The boy looked sharp, enough to take a deal and sell Aizen.

"Since when do you know Mr. Aizen?" He said behind a white ANBU mask.

"I know Dr. Aizen since I was a teen" the boy said without losing a beat and Kakashi hummed. That wasn't the answer he wanted.

"Where do you say you are from?"

"A civilian town that was called Karakura"

"What happened to it?"

"There was a war between two factions and Karakura was catch on the cross fire" the boy's eyebrows lowered but he didn't elaborate further.

"Is Aizen from Karakura too?"

"Yes, Dr. Aizen is from there" the teen sighed the answer and his eyes travelled to the wall. Almost as if he was nervous, but there wasn't any flinch when Kakashi got near to intimidate him.

"From which Ninja village are you?" Kakashi bluffed expecting a reaction like denying or fear, instead the teen blinked in confusion.

Kakashi felt a flare of riatsu and recognized it as a signal that the Hokage wanted to talk with him. There were a lot of things Kakashi expected, but having Aizen and his gang released wasn't one of them.

"Neither he or his aides had the looks of a someone trained in the ninja arts" the Hokage said as he gazed at the carved faces in the mountains "There are very few talented doctors willing to work in the civilian hospital or know how to treat people with almost not chakra reserves"

The explication was as hollow as Kakashi expected.

* * *

The news of Naruto beating a traitorous chunin arrived one morning and Kakashi would have sprint to ask the Hokage to not put the kid on his squad, instead Kakashi noted it would be futile and he had already a plan for the day.

Kakashi had planned to bug the doctor house and later scare the man out of Naruto life. What he had not accounted in the first step of his plan, was that a blue haired man was resting on the roof of the house, his face full with ire and looking as someone that wanted to kill.

Grimmjow something, the oldest apprentice of Aizen and according to the supervisor was the bodyguard of the group forced in nursery to have his papers accepted.

"Who are you?" The foreigner snarled after Kakashi jumped to the neighbor's roof, the ninja had observed the man quitely for a while. Everything of the blue haired man screamed lack of restraint and Kakashi was sure he would get juicy information for him "If you wanna inside, you gotta bring an order or some shit like that"

"No one said I did" Kakashi smiled and the man's hand closed in strong fists. Aizen had expected his house being invaded that much was clear. Now Kakashi just needed to incite a fight and have the man's group on trial finally. He decided to push Grimmjow buttons "You aren't very sharp, are you?"

Grimmjow eyes widened but before he could jump to where Kakashi was he halted and his eyes looked at his left, he almost looked as he was hearing someone and his blue eyes were piercing the empty spot with something akin to fear. Kakashi surveyed the area with his visible eye trying to figure out why the air felt heavier. Nothing looked out of place to be a gengutsu, but he still made the sign to make "Kai" and whispered the words.

Everything remained the same, except that Grimmjow had dropped his battle stance and was not even facing Kakashi.

"I have things to do" the man spatted the words and jumped to the ground, making a spin to couch the falling. A normal Ninja would have just made the jump and fall on his two feets instead of leaving the enemy with the chance of attacking during the spin.

It could still be a ploy.

* * *

Two weeks later, away from his vigilance of Aizen, the ninja had a new brand problem.

Kakashi didn't want to reprove his sensei son, but the boy and his team were selfish and arrogant, a failure to work as a unit or even in pairs. Naruto was strapped on a pole while his two team mates ate without any concern for him. To be fair Sasuke glanced from his bento to the other boy almost every three seconds, but that wasn't enough.

"What should we do?" Sakura asked softly as she faced Sasuke "There are only two bells...but we are supposed to work as a team..."

"I have a plan!" Naruto screamed happily, face red and grin wide, it was like a light bulb was over his head "It's like Aizen said!"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes, he expected Naruto friendship with the foreigner being gone already, the man keeping to himself after the whole ordeal.

"Who?" Sakura asked with concern "Is he a ninja?"

"Nop, he is a doctor...he is pretty smart too. We had only enough money for a bowl of ramen, and he just took another plate and we both ate..'Split and conquer' he said, and later something like 'that from one can become two' and... Something about ramen..I" Naruto faltered "I had a plan...believe it!"

"So, we take a bell and cut it in three?" Sakura understood the plan that Naruto had forgotten in his babbling "Can we do that?"

"He didn't said anything against that" Sasuke faced his two team mates for the first time "If every other test is the same, then there must be an answer for two bells and three ninjas teams"

"Yes!" Sakura grinned in agreement "Naruto, well done!"

Kakashi didn't expect the girl to acknowledge Naruto or Sasuke being so eager to risk his chances on a ridiculous idea as the one that Naruto proposed. It was still not enough to give them a pass.

"Why aren't you eating, Sasuke? We should eat to have energy?" Sakura asked softly.

Sasuke gave Naruto a resigned look and offered his bento "You need energy too"

There was a small silence and Kakashi decided it was the perfect moment to scare the kids. They would get paler than paper before Kakashi informed them they had passed.

* * *

A few days later, Kakashi henged himself before entering the foreigner's office at the Hospital. The doctor had a warm aura around him, even the dark rings under his eyes didn't made his face lose any kindness. Too perfect. People probably crawled at the man elegance and beauty, marvelling at the perfect work of art he portrayed himself to be.

But Kakashi wasn't a fool. His fingernails had blood of wolf's dressed as sheep long before Aizen had his first time.

"Mr. Haduka?" Aizen checked his folder "I didn't expect you until tomorrow. But I have time, please, take a seat"

The ninja sat down in the cold chair in front of the desk and looked careful at the doctor hands, they were strong and the right one had more calluses than the left. The pattern was familiar.. Negative point for the "doctor", practicing sword play was definitely not a skill required to heal patients.

"What seems to be the problem?"

"You are a liar... _doctor"_

"Excuse me?" Aizen eyes narrowed, as if he was offended and wasn't just caught out on his act "You..."

Aizen couldn't finish his sentence before Kakashi had a pointy kunai against his throat. His brown eyes hardened behind the glasses but there was not a trace of fear in them. Aizen didn't said anything, he was aware of the danger he was in but had too much pride to beg or ask questions that wouldn't be answered.

In the corner of his eyes Kakashi catched a nurse running away from the door. Kakashi wanted to kill the deceiver, the man that dared to talk with Naruto as a father, but knew that the murder of a such respected doctor would be investigated. Someone would be punished for it and Naruto...

" Fuc.." The blue haired bodyguard and two other men stood at the door frame, watching the scene carefully, and in the case of Aizen's friend, utter surprise.

Kakashi ran away, leaving only smoke behind. He barely catched the man mocking smile.

* * *

...

"Our first mission outside Konoha!" Naruto almost screamed at the doors gates.

Kakashi smiled, soon they would match outside of Konoha in a bodyguard mission of a builder of bridges. It would be a nice change of environment.

"You seem happier than usual" Sakura commented cheerfully "And Sosuke looks happy too!"

"I just saw Aizen in passing! He wished me luck! Sakura, you should meet him! He is great!"

Kakashi mood soured fastly but only Sasuke noticed. A few minutes later, they parted from Konoha without knowing they would face a deathly enemy.

* * *

...

 **Very well, break is over, so I probably will not update for a while...Or never, you know how we writers of FF are and our thing for unfinished fics. Sorry.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading and have a good week.**


	10. Ashes

**Look, I wish to apologize with something like "I was busy doing my work" but I woul be lying. In fact, right now, I should be working in what I'm supposed to be working..I dunno... anyway, here am I, writing for a fic that gets no love XD. More exposition...I wonder when will the plot come back from the war? Hopefully next chapter XD. Thanks for reading.**

 **Ashes**

Long ago, when Ichigo was a kid, he was afraid of the afterlife. As far as he knew, there wasn't hell, or heaven, just emptiness. The only world he knew was the one were ghosts and humans existed. Years later, after he knew there was, indeed, a place to go after the death, Ichigo felt something akin to relief. Soul Society wasn't paradise, but in a sense, it was still something beyond death.

In the magic Ninja world, Ichigo fear of death assaulted him again.

He was on a mission to rid a forest of bandits when he saw a woman on the path. The body wasn't cold yet and Killer B was eager to find the culprit, but Ichigo didn't follow the ninja, instead, he just stared at a skin as pale as ashes and at the blank stare without any fire of life. He wondered, for the first time since meeting Rukia, where did people go after diying.

In a distant place, another being was asking himself the same as he monitored a desauciad man.

Sosuke Aizen knew time wasn't on his favor, that he should had been focusing in dimensional research, but as the soul of his patient left the body, the soul reaper tried with all his might to figure where the spirit went. He even did a tracking kido but once the man died, it was useless. Aizen first theory was that souls didn't part to any Soul Society and neither could they keep form on the real world, hence why the tracking kido was useless, second theory was that souls were very different on the magical ninja world and so any other kido would be completely useless for that particular research.

The soul reaper discarded the idea inmediatly, if souls were that different then gigais wouldn't work as good as they did.

He needed to do more tests about it, the research would be useful without a doubt and..

"Don't" Orihime spoke softly from the other side of the bed of the patient. She looked at Aizen as if she knew that he was thinking about doing something that had barely any relevance to going back. She was quite the perceptive girl.

"Don't what? Miss Inoue" he asnwered with a smirk, she had grow up since Hueco Mundo, but not enough to think she could outplay him.

"You look as if you wanted to stray away from the "back to home" project..like last week that we spend all the afternoons reading about how ninja sandals were made, it was funny. I mean, I thought their sandals were magical and it would be awesome to take magic sandals to Karakura, I would be Spiderman! I mean, Spiderwoman"

"Yes, you would" Aizen could understand that. Perhaps Orihime wasn't the smartest sharp in the box, but he found in her an akin soul that saw the clouds as the fishes of the sky. She was a dreamer even in the chaotic world they lived, and she still knew to keep her feets on the ground. Like Aizen her mind went to sidetracks fastly, but unlike him she had not the knowledge or curiosity to tear everything apart.

As she began to fill the notes, Aizen went to inform the man's family about what happened. The man's family was only a teen with freckles and big teeth. The girl had arrived fastly, in the same smoke screen that all the ninjas did even though she wasn't on duty and obviously didn't want anyone to know she was a ninja.

She was dressed as a civilian (not even a chainmail underneath) and without her headband, but Aizen had already figured out the soft steps of the ninjas and their fails to mimic the civilians long ago. Like their hands, even henge couldn't hide every scar. He saw them perfectly without using any of his powers, probably with more clarity that they themselves did.

Aizen wasn't a good man, he had even killed Gin, a young man that had been his student because he feel like doing it. He, of course, could defend all his actions with retoric, saying something like "he killed me first, by killing him I acknowledged his intent", but he was smart enough to know that he did things to suit his own tastes.

The ninja girl cried once the news were delivered and Aizen did as was expected from him. Being a perfect doctor that understands others pain. It was as much as an act as his ruling in Hueco Mundo had been. A sort of honestity with a lot of deceive.

He wondered briefly if the girl was acting too, and once again in the day, rejected his hypothesis almost at the same time he thought it. The girl was a mess, trained to kill but with a psyche as frail ash.

If Aizen were a ninja, he would have long ago set his mind to destroy the village system. It wasn't even a hundred years old and it would probably change with just single village that didn't use childen as soldiers.

Aizen had seen all those kids, from Naruto to Kakashi. Weak and prone to sentiment. They were broken in twisted ways that were only possible if the breaking began even before they outgrew their diapers. It was so twisted and cruel that made Soul Society almost look good.

Almost. Afterlife, unlike the real world, could be made a sort of heaven with relative easiness, but the things that controlled all never did anything to improve the world without any real problem, so Soul Society was still worst.

That didn't mean the idea of a revolution wasn't strong, instead, as Sosuke went to another patient's bed, he was already thinking about how. He hadn't write a book in a long time, and thanks to Naruto's rocks from the temples outside he had time to spare, only downfall is that he would leave out his anthropology research on "why ninjas run with their hands behind their backs"

In another place of the same village, Uryu Ishida tried again to purify a house in the Uchiha's compound. The last Uchiha watching from outside the house gate. The boy was tyring to keep a serene face even if Uryu couldn't figure out what tied the last spiritual particles of the victims to the place.

It was almost as if the whole land was the casket of their corpses and they were trapped inside.

Uryu cringed at the idea. He had asked Sasuke where were the bodies buried, but the boy admitted he didn't knew. They had given him only the ashes of his parents, and he didn't care about the others.

The Quincy didn't ask why the lack of care, it would had been insensitive and rude, so instead, he went to work and did as many purifier rituals as he knew.

Suddenly he felt a tug, coming from below the ground, it was symilar to hollow in how wrong it felt. Uryu knelt and touched the wooden floor to sense it better. He saw something red and black dots in his mind eye, but as sudden as the vision came it was gone.

"I will try another thing tomorrow" he said to the boy.

"Are you sure it will work? If there are spirits, I want them gone before next mission"

Uryu nodded in understanding but his words were "We will see", he wanted Sasuke to not give up, after all, last mission outside the village had gone slightly wrong as far as Uryu could infer. Sasuke Uchiha hadn't said what happened, just a small grunt about a lying carpenter. Uryu thought it had something to do with death.

Death always made people change. It was a mark point of before and after.

As he bid Sasuke farewell, Uryu looked at the place, he had heard the Uchihas were proficient in jutsus of fire, so he could almost feel fit that whenever he put a foot in their graveyard, he could feel something that tasted as ashes in his mouth.


	11. Miss

Miss

"Did the radio work?"

Uryu raised an eyebrow at the scene in front of him, Orihime asking Aizen about his advances was pretty common, but every single time he couldn't help to felt dread; a part of him almost could picture that the madman would latch out and kill her.

"Yes, it's working splendidly . I have already figured out how to catch the right wavelength, it would help us the most to find a reishi concentrated place to build the portal"

Aizen answered smoothly, something akin to pride shining on his eyes and that was enough for Uryu fingers to carres the Quincy cross on his wrist. It was done below the table, but Aizen gazed him humorlessly as if he had seen the act.

"That's good!" Orihime didn't lost a beat "I read the book of summons that you lend me...and I found that a lot of footnotes talked about the Second Hokage, not only that, when checking the encyclopedia, there were a lot of references to him too... But when I searched on the library, there wasn't even a scroll from him"

Uryu had to give Orihime praise, she was pretty committed to be helpful in the plan to go back and would go to the library or bookstores in search for more information about the "jutsus", sadly, there was little to be found on the civilian market, so Grimmjow had snatched a few scrolls and books that Orihime and Uryu would have to read before bothering Aizen with them.

"Yes...it would look like we need to borrow more from the Ninja's library. A lot of the scrolls would be codified and have safe seals...only ninjas class S would have the passwords. Or the Hokage" Aizen said before resting his chin on his fist thinking on how to maneuver the whole issue.

"Perhaps Ichigo and Chad would become S class ninjas?" Orihime offered.

"As they aren't natives from there, it's to be expected they would require much more time, if not be forbidden outright. At maximum we will have access to chunin information"

Uryu tried to run diverse sceneries on his head, they really needed to know what they could about jutsu, studying it directly would take decades, Aizen and Uryu were smart and knew a lot about reiatsu and could recognize similar patterns, even use some concepts about the chakra in their world to understand Ninja's chakra, but the walls were still very tall.

"Tch, at this rate we can wait to the blond Gin to become Hokage…"

Uryu had to give Grimmjow a pointed look because the nonsensical idea. The kid, Naruto, even if creepy (freak riatsu) wasn't a schemer of caliber of the traitors, or a genius, in any form. The chances the kid was more a potential weapon than a leader to Konoha were big as far as Uryu was concerned.

He expected Aizen to dismiss the idea, but the madman chuckled and nodded.

"I have thought about it. The boy is well connected. His teacher was the Fourth Hokage student. But I doubt Naruto can become Hokage in the next ten years. And there is no guarantee he would be able to survive any war that happens on that time frame" Aizen smiled after saying those words, as if he was happy with the idea of the strange boy dying in a war.

Orihime just sighed, a small gesture of disagreement but she wasn't going to talk about it. There were things that Aizen did and thought that neither human wanted to know, there were probably crimes done at night that would make their skin crawl. But taking distance was impossible, they needed Aizen more than he did them, so both, Orihime and Uryu, had decided long ago not to ask.

* * *

Kon was having a bad day.

Pretending to be an assassin for hire was one of the worst things he had done in his life. But Ichigo wanted to talk with Aizen again. Probably he just wanted to see Orihime beautiful body.

"Who is the chick?" KillerB asked from his seat on the ground. At the side of Sado, even his sunglasses weren't enough to intimidate Kon or make him blush.

"A friend" Kon almost sung, after Rukia, Kon found Orihime to be the best girl. He wished to had been left at her side, to protect her from the likes of Aizen. The glasses-boy wasn't enough for a task of such importante.

"The healer?"

"Yup, the same!" Kon nodded happily before catching Sado posture and going back to be as quiet as Ichigo should be.

"You shouldn't make a girl wait" KillerB said with a big grin "Or it would be too late?"

Kon had to agree with the black man idea, making a girl wait would end up with a heartache. Rukia, he thought, surely suffered a lot when he was gone.

Either way, the lunch break was almost over, and the modified soul just wanted Ichigo to return soon. As much as he liked KillerB, he was still a murderer, someone that took precious lives for money, and wherever they were going, there would be a man wanting to change gold for blood.

Not even Rukia's memory would be enough to keep him from shivering when the time came. He hoped against hope that Chad would make up a lie to stall them until the next day or for Ichigo to return.

He missed home.

* * *

"In two weeks, we will have the chunin exam" said a man with sleepy gray eyes.

"How fast, it feels like yesterday when we had ours, doesn't it?" Asked a man with two lost teeth.

Ichigo listened from his seat in the roof. He remembered KillerB talking about that exam, but no one from their village would go for it was held in Konoha. The two places hated each other and there was enough bad blood that even his friend voice would take an edge when talking about the rival village.

"Want to fight! Ichigo!" Grimmjow jumped to the roof and the sound of his landing had "Sleepy eyes" going outside the window to give a harsh look around, but he was unable to see the two spirits.

"Cut it out, Grimmjow. I don't have time for that!" Ichigo stod up and in a flash made the run towards Uryu's riatsu. He was the nearest and he was probably the best source of information.

He found him inside an old traditional house, chanting words in German as he roamed the place.

After a few minutes, the Quincy stopped and looked at Ichigo's form with icy eyes. Before neither could say anything a boy entered the room and Ichigo had to do a double take.

The kid looked as the damned Uchiha.

"I'm beggining to think this is a sham" the boy said with sharp eyes "Give me a reason why I shouldn't bring this matter to the Hokage"

Uryu fixed his glasses and gave Ichigo a look of acknowledgment, as if he were patronizing the child by ignoring him.

"What, do you see a ghost" the boy crossed his arms and smirked, but Uryu surprised everyone when he smirked back.

"I do. A soul Reaper. He looks like he knows you"

That raised the kid black eyebrow, but he was obviously not believing him.

"I don't know that boy" Ichigo said as he pointed to the kid "He just looks like that Uchiha"

"That Uchiha?" Uryu asked, completely forgetting the kid "That's impossible, he said he was the last one"

Ichigo looked again at the little ninja, as if measuring him. It wasn't smart to talk in front of the kid, but there was an aching feeling on his bones, people's voices that wanted him to speak, to tell. Like if with his voice he could vanish the shadows.

"In the bingo books, they called him Itachi" as he said the name he felt prickles on his skin and his heart felt heavy. He felt.. betrayed?

Uryu paled and made a big intake of air, as if the name was a sore spout.

"Itachi..." Uryu closed his eyes in concentration "His eyes...they were red...he...I don't understand"

"What about _Itachi"_ the boy whispered the name as if he feared to say it. With his pale face he looked much more vulnerable that a minute ago.

"Sasuke, Im afraid to say, but it looks like the lingering energies were in a lot of anguish when they died. That name worked as a trigger to them" Uryu said back to his composed self "Was he the one that did it?"

The kid, Sasuke, looked as someone that had been given a hit in the stomach, but he got back his words in record time and nodded "Yes, that man, did it. My brother did it"

Ichigo saw the red eyes again. But this time, there weren't two black dots in those pits of hell, instead, the pupil looked as a shiruken, and then, he felt warm blood on his throat. Wasn't he supposed to lead them to victory? Why did he? Why was everyone dead? He wanted his mother, but then, the masked man was on his window. He took his eyes, how would he see his wife again? He wanted his blood. Blood for blood.

And Ichigo was woken up with a strong punch on the arm. Uryu was looking at him with harshness, and the boy was breathing heavily on the wooden floor.

"Was that killer intent?" Sasuke asked fastly, a smile on his face "They want vengeance too!"

"Some do" Uryu said after cleaning his sweaty hand in his white pants "But, this" Uryu gestured to outside the window "It isn't just about Itachi. Or vengance... it's much more"

The boy wasn't happy with the answer, but he was listening every word with vicious interest.

Ichigo decided that it was time to go. He couldn't deal with visions of dead people nor their lingering feelings. He wasn't a child anymore, so he should had been able to stop events like that.

But, as he jumped outside the compound, he felt that the disgust was still roaming all his body. Older brothers should protect the youngest.

He missed his sisters.

* * *

 **Someone was kind to remind me that Itachi had a full Sharingan, and I was like "I know, but why would Itachi use all his powers against a Rockie ninja? That would be wasteful, wouldn't it.**

 **Anyway, I will guess some people would have wanted an update, the follows say as much, even if there are zero reviews. Still, one of the two would happen: people will get feed with the new chapter and don't return or they will go to next chapter, hopeful to get to the end and close that fic in their lives.**

 **All aside, thanks for reading and I hope someone is enjoying this even a little :-)**


	12. Before the start

**It's probably the worst fic on the fandom. Well, not quite. But still. I would delete it, but idk, perhaps someone likes it? O mean, I have liked to read fics that are... really, really bad. So, who knows?**

Before the start

Ichigo came back to find Kon trying to keep tears at bay, Chad was looking at everything in his normal quiet way and Killer-B was laughing loudly. The reason was that another ninja was controlling Ichigo's gigai with a kind of straw doll. How it happened? Ichigo had no idea but he wanted to punch someone already.

"Help!" Kon screamed as he was forced to walk like a duck. It would be funny if the person being controlled didn't have Ichigo's face. The ninja with the Vudu doll just grinned and made it jump.

She was a strange woman, lacked two teeth and had one that was beyond saving. Her hair looked as it had been bleached too many times and her skin was slightly lighter that what was the norm in Kumo. But her headband was proudly set in the place it should and Killer-B and Chad didn't see her as a problem.

So Ichigo shouldn't.

"Help me!" Kon tried again, his eyes watching Ichigo as if he was his only hope. Ichigo wanted to roll his eyes. Instead, he jumped at the side of the woman and did what any invisible person would do. He touched her left shoulder and as she turned her face to her left, he whispered "Bu".

"Kya!" the woman let go of the doll and searched the invisible person right in front of her. The ninja's scared eyes didn't find anything, but she looked as if she had been touched by a ghost to everyone that didn't knew better.

"What's the problem?" Killer-B asked, his hand on a kunai ready for the attack.

"Something touched me! A bad spirit! Oh, no! I must go!" the woman stood up and began to play with her hands "I must clean my chakras! It was a pleasure to meet you. Little Ichi and Big Chad!"

The woman bolted as fast as her legs allowed her and Kon looked at her retreating form as if she was her number one enemy.

"That chick is crazy!" he said as he walked towards the doll, moving slightly to avoid to touch Ichigo as he reached for the doll "Why did you made me give her my hair? She could have killed me"

"Where would had been the fun there" Killer-B said as he raised two thumbs ups. Ichigo and Kon wore the exact same face of judgment and raised eyebrow. The man ignored them and watched the retreating back of the woman jumping the stairs "Shame she is kinda crazy. Believing in ghosts and that crazy stuff"

There was a weaver on his voice, a hint that wasn't lost to any of the other guys, but only Kon had the means and the spirit to push the man's buttons.

"Ghost are real" Kon sung. Killer-B crossed his arms and waited for what he believed would be Ichigo's story with ghosts. Kon grinned and smiled, then his voice became a whisper as if he was telling the dark secrets of the afterlife "They are everywhere even if you can't see them. They watch you even in the brightest day or darkest night. They follow you at every hour, on your shadows or on your clothes. There is no scape from them, and once they get hungry, they would kill you to devour your soul"

"That sounds more like a demon" Killer-B said, a small hint of fear on his voice. Ichigo couldn't blame him, there was an strange quality on Kon's voice that was eery, probably because he was an artificial soul.

"That's because they were humans once" Kon shrugged as if didn't matter, then, with heavy tone followed "So, don't be surprised if one kills you in your sleep"

"Ha! You don't believe in that, right Chad?"

"It's true" Chad said evenly and began to walk away from the practice ground. Kon following behind. Ichigo looked at the doll, now on Kon's hand, the reminder of the prank of Killer-B. So Ichigo did what he had to do.

He tapped Killer-B shoulder, dodged a Kunai and went to the other side of his face to say what he had to say.

Killer-B scream was high pitched and Ichigo laughed at that.

* * *

"What did Aizen Say?" Chad asked. Ichigo was back on his gigai and was playing with the small green ball that had Kon's soul. Both were walking to their quarters and everything looked pretty safe.

"Not that much. Advances were made but it could take years unless we find a way to get the codes of the secrets scrolls of the ninjas. He said there are rules in this worlds he hasn't figured yet but ninjas have"

"How are Uryu and Orihime?"

"As well as they could be" Ichigo answered, thinking back at Orihime saying all was right. Aizen was an odd person, worst, a cunning son of a...Ichigo closed his eyes and forced himself to relax. He trusted Uryu and Orihime was smart too. If anyone was forced to spend time with Aizen those two were the ones that could do it and still remain sane.

"What do you think we should do?"

"When I was back there" Ichigo didn't say Konoha, the only spiritual presence near by wasn't near enough, it was better to be cautious in some aspects ",there were talks about the next chunin exam"

Chad nodded and took Kon's from Ichigo hand. It was safer that way. The same reason that let Ichigo do neat ninja tricks caused his gigai to fall into gengutsu. And as the air around them got heavier, Ichigo could felt the spiritual energy of a ninja wanting to cast a jutsu over them.

Ichigo rested his hand on the handle of his sword, took some air and said something about the dry weather to Chad. They would look as just two other soldiers making their walk to home without knowing any better. Or so Ichigo hoped. Just because he didn't want to fight so near the village and cause any damage.

The person vanished in a twirl and Ichigo watched turned to the point where the spiritual precense had been, noticing the enemy had gone away without leaving a trace. It was strange, sadly, not the strangest thing.

He frowned and continued walking. He had a lot of thinking to do.

That night, they reported the strange encounter, but it was labeled as a paranoia incident, far more common that what Ichigo knew, sighting of enemies that were never there was something that even seasoned veterans did.

Killer-B didn't explain that, instead preferred to recount his own experience with a ghost.

"But that meant nothing, ghosts ain't real after all" Killer-B said with a laugh "Ichihime, boy, what the long face"

"When we were out of town, I heard about a ninja test" Ichigo said without mincing his words.

"The chunin exam? This year is in Konoha and we didn't plan to send anyone, but if you wanna go, I can make it work!"

Ichigo was really surprised how easy that was. Really easy, but if there was something brewing under the layers, he was sure that Uryu or Aiden would figure it sooner than later. So Ichigo nodded.

Killer-B did his signature thumbs up and went to talk with his brother. A week later, Ichigo, Chad and a ninja named Kiro were walking to Konoha along other four teams. Killer-B had instructed them all to win.

Ichigo planned to do just that.

* * *

"So that's how you duplicate yourself" Mr. Aizen said in awe, a bright smile on his face as he looked at Naruto and two of his shadow clones "As expected of someone that would be Hokage"

"Haha!" Naruto rubbed his neck embarrassed. It felt good to know that someone had faith on him. Naruto thought that the feeling was akin of what a son feels when their parent cheered on them. He loved that feeling "I know"

"Again, thanks for bringing me those rocks. I needed them to do toxicity research's. I hope my research would help a lot of people" Mr. Aizen smile was grateful as he spoke and Naruto wanted to bask on it. He had never been so wanted on his entire life that he just wanted that moment to last forever.

For him, Mr. Aizen was his most important person. That thought brought back a memory of a child dieing in a bridge. Haku, kind and nice, had just seen himself as a weapon even if he loved as any other person in the world. Perhaps more.

"Mr. Aizen?"

"Yes?"

"They say that us, ninja, are only tools. But we are human" he said out loud, without being sure of what he wanted to say, his memory going back to the stares full of hatred for what Naruto had inside, and the words of the academy instructors about what a ninja should be "I'm human too"

"I understand" Mr. Aizen put a fatherly hand over Naruto's head, ruffled his hair and then, he walked two steps ahead of Naruto, and turned his head to look at Naruto over his shoulder "Just be you, Naruto. And don't let anyone, even me, get in your way"

Naruto blinked and watched as Mr. Aizen walked away, his hand waving him farewell. Naruto wasn't sure what the man had wanted to say.

He didn't quite understand why, but still, as the warmness of the touch faded, Naruto began to get a sense of relief. All his life, people had denied him, hated him, saw him as less than a thing. But now he was recognized. Had Haku felt the same way when he met Zabuza?

Was that how every child felt towards his parent?

He was musing about that when he saw Sakura running after a very red Konohamaru.

"I'm sorry for ruining your dress!" Konohamaru wailed "Don't hurt me!"

Naruto touched his nose and smiled. He was going to do what a Hokage was supposed to do, save the kids, smile to the girl and just solve every problem. Then from Konohamaru to Sakura, love would come unbinding.

He was about to jump between the two, when Konohamaru collided against a teen dressed in black, at his side a pretty blond girl that had a scary smirk that made Naruto shiver. It was like if they were enemies.

"What's your problem, brat" the teen asked as he grabbed Konohamaru by the shirt.

"Let go, don't you know who I am?" Konohamaru said as he dug his nails in the teen's hand, but he didn't seem about to let go just yet.

"A brat"

Naruto had enough. He put himself on front of Sakura and demanded the teen to let Konohamaru go. It was a failure and he needed to be helped by Sasuke. Days later, team 7 joined the chunin exam.

* * *

Uryu felt Sado's riatsu kilometers before their arrival. It was, likes Orihime's and his, not hidden behind a gigai.

Orihime was sitting near the window, waiting the person that without a doubt would show that day. She was reading a book of history, making notes as Aizen had requested, so Uryu knew trying to ask her to go to sleep was useless.

He felt tired too. Shifts at the hospital weren't easy, and lately there had been a lot of sick people due the new season. Adding to his problems, he was still unable to solve the Uchiha problem.

"You will wrinkle if you frown like that" Orihime commented after laying the book to rest.

"It's bound to happen" Uryu said without much care "You know he will not come until later, don't you?"

"If Mr. Grimmjow tries to fight Ichigo they would cause a ruckus and I want to 'reject' anything that happens"

Uryu conceded that "Lately, Grimmjow has been more rude and more volatile. If they fight, then I would better help too"

"Ichigo won't appreciate that"

"I will not care"

Orihime smiled at Uryu, the same kind smile as always. It was kind of nice, they two, spending time without fighting to the death, it would be better if they were back at their world. If only Ywach hadn't attacked, then everyone would be in Karakura eating bread and talking about the new movie.

Aizen broke up the atmosphere when he opened the door entrance and invited himself in.

"Children, I see you are resting" Aizen said with a big smirk that somehow managed to shade his glasses. Uryu had to wonder if they weren't already under Kyoka Suigetsu attack only because how light seemed to bend around the madman.

"Ichigo and Sado are coming" Orihime said without being asked, a tight smile on her beautiful face.

"Fake smiles don't suit you, Miss Orihime"

Uryu touched the Quincy cross with the tip of his fingers and glared at Aizen, but the man ignored him and went to the small kitchen.

"The chunins exams are about to start. It's quite the festival for what I have heard. Even if some people die" the man said with a smile "It would be enlightening"

Neither teen smiled back.

Outside, the chunin exams were about to start.


	13. Chapter 13

**Kids, don't be like me. Get a Beta. Anyway, Idk why am I still trying to write in English...people reviewed last chapter, so I made this one as the draft was erased by time...thanks for reading.**

The first two trials

Ichigo blinked once. Then twice, and just to be safe, a third time.

Nothing, the exam sheet was as confusing as the first time he lied eyes on it. It was maddening, crazy, the play of a maniac that would put Aizen to shame. After all, how was he supposed to calculate the speed required to hit a target that jumped from a six meter tree, and just because they wanted to annoy him more, there was something about requiring to calculate the size of the kunai.

He didn't knew they came in more than one size!

Chad, sat two rows ahead, was as serious as ever, probably thinking about dogs or cats once he realized passing the test was impossible. He was smart enough to make with time useful things instead of stressing about an impossible test. Ichigo looked around him, trying to see other people giving up in what was obviously a trap.

His eyes went to the blond child, sat almost on the front row. His riatsu was unsettling, like when he met Shibata.

Shibata had been a deceased boy whose soul was put inside a parrot by an evil spirit, with that creating a quimera with two souls clearly different between them. He couldn't see if there were two souls inside the boy's body because whenever he tried to read more clearly the riatsu he felt a strong anger and malice that was sickening.

Ichigo closed his eyes and tried to not watch the red head boy just two seats away that had the same strange riatsu problem that the blond boy, just that instead of anger it was more like despair. Ichigo had enough with his own problems to busy with ninja emotions.

Still, he couldn't help to observe the boy making a jutsu and closing one of his eyes, like if he was watching something behind his eyelid. Ichigo blinked as realization came by. After noticing the red head boy attempt on cheating, he could feel various riatsus peaking as the people casted jutsus.

It was like if it was a contest in cheating. Something that Ichigo had never been good at.

Ichigo still smirked, for a great plan had formed in his head. He asked to go to the bathroom and, once safe from wandering eyes, he took Kon's pill outside his bag, ready to do what he had to do for becoming chunin and getting access to valuable information.

After a few seconds, Kon was on Ichigo's gigai, walking towards the classroom where only he and Chad would be able to see and hear the orange haired Shinigami. For the modified soul it sounded as the best idea in ages, perhaps just second to Ichigo scaring Killer-B.

A few hours later, when a lot of people passed after the peep talk of an annoying kid, Kon didn't find everything so funny. He had really wrote the answers and his wrist ached. He hoped that next round was fighting because he was ready to kick him for ruining the cheating game.

* * *

Grimmjow was bored. He missed fighting and punching, and the good life that was just being in Hueco Mundo being hailed as the important person he was. He wondered if the hollows had finally got ridden of the Quincys or were waiting to be saved by the powerful espadas.

He was wandering in one of the woods that serves as ninja training grounds when he felt it, a twisting riatsu that was more snaky that Gin's. It was slippery, trailing in the skin as if it was blood and Grimmjow bared his teeth as he waited.

Nothing came, of course, even if there was someone lurking in the woods, Grimmjow wouldn't be his victim, with the whole being invisible to everyone but the white eyed people. But, the tingle of danger was still there, a reminder that there was something in the shadows.

He was still searching in the ground when he felt a familiar riatsu coming towards him. He didn't want to turn around, but being disrespectful to Aizen wasn't ever a good idea. He was powerful and chaotic in his actions, not the kind of people one wants to annoy.

"What an interesting riatsu that is" Aizen commented with an amused smile "It's the sort of riatsu that one should be wary about"

Grimmjow had to raise an eyebrow at that. Aizen had always have that white haired, smirking always, good at being a snake, Gin. But then, if something was clear with Aizen was that he liked to play mind games.

"Can't find the snake" Grimmjow admitted bitterly, annoyed that he couldn't find the enemy.

"It looks like there are a lot of people inside the woods now" Aizen changed the conversation, still smirking as if he had won the war "This would be an interesting evening"

An hour later, Grimmjow watched two teens fight over, and that he couldn't believe it, a scroll. They were really eager to win that paper as if their lives depended on it, for much fun he had with kids beating each other, that only made him desire to fight.

But for that, he had to get away from Aizen, that observed everything from a safe distance (for the kids, as Aizen riatsu could still harm people). He began walking away, thankful Aizen just glanced once and was back at watching the teens launch jutsu after jutsu. Grimmjow couldn't wait for their alliance to finish.

* * *

Naruto couldn't help to think about the orange hair man again, he was Aizen's friend in a sort of way, but it was strange that he had the headband he had. It was like if by having friends in other villages Mr. Aizen himself was commiting treason. No, Naruto scolded himself. The more friends one got the better.

Just because some ninjas from others villages might fight to death for their scroll, it didn't mean having a bunch from friends on other places wasn't brilliant, meeting all those people and talking with them like he did back when he meet Haku was the right thing to do.

"We need a password" Sasuke said as they set up a camp "We might get split if an enemy attacks and the enemy would try to use a henge to fool us"

"You are so smart, Sasuke!" Sakura squealed, her cute smile lightening her face. Naruto crossed his arms, he could have come up with the idea too. "What should it be? A tap on our headbands? A code?"

"No, it should be a phrase" Sasuke said as he glanced at Naruto "I propose this 'The small kid sleeps through the night, unaware that the calmness is just an illusion of the tender soul'"

"Right!" Sakura nodded. Naruto too, followed her lead, even if he had already forgotten the riddle. Bah, he would just have to kick Sasuke if he got mad about the password.

Just an hour later, Naruto felt the tingle that signaled he needed to go to the bathroom and he informed his teammates as he rushed towards the bushes, not waiting for their approval. Sasuke and Sakura just sighed at that.

The three of them, unaware that someone was watching them hidden by the leaves, didn't do anything more to protect themselves.

* * *

It was, Ichigo thought, a bad sign that the team that attacked them had the same heaven scroll that them. A useless fight that just accomplished losing four kunais. Those things weren't cheap and now they were forever lost in the darkness of the gloom forest.

The two niwa teams were working together and were scouting the place in two man cells, as always, Ichigo pick was Chad. It was kind of unfair towards the other ninjas, as they couldn't sense riatsu and so couldn't pick up the hidden ninjas over the place.

"I believe Aizen and Grimmjow are gone" Chad said as he jumped to the adjacent tree branch "I don't sense their riatsu anymore"

"Seem like it" Ichigo searched the riatsus of Uryu and Orihime, so far away but the familiar touch was easy to find when it was strong. And talking about strong riatsus "I believe Aizen learned a ninja trick"

"We still need him" Chad said, he neither liked that Aizen had as much freedom as he did "Now we are stronger too, so we have to believe we would be able to deal with Aizen when time comes"

"Yes, you are right Chad" Ichigo said, trying to relax "This is stressing me. Not only him. This place, I can't see pluses but people have died here, tortured perhaps. Feels like one of those places where executions were done, right?"

Chad shrugged, and Ichigo, briefly, desired that Uryu was there too. He would understand, because he too, since being a child, had to walk in memorials. Which reminded him about the strange place with Ash flavor that lurked in Konoha. The body-less graveyard full of anguish and betrayal. The mark where a massacre had been committed by one they trusted, by family member no less.

Ichigo couldn't forgive such person. Next time he would have to do what was right for those souls and bring them justice. It was something he did since he noticed the little girl flowers being kicked out towards her transparent form, the dead couldn't defend themselves so Ichigo had to.

Far away, he felt a riatsu wavering and he sighted. Stopping the carnage was practically impossible, like trying to stop vehicular accidents, so he would only try to jump when children where the victims.

A rush of two mingled riatsus signaled there was going to be a battle near them. But behind him, he felt the riatsu of someone young blinking with his latest forces to the death. A boy perhaps?

"I'm going to the battle and you take care of the girl?" Ichigo asked and Chad nodded "Right then. You catch me later"

* * *

"Giant snakes!" Naruto screamed as he dodged the tail of a GIANT snake "Why there aren't giant toads, toads are nicer!"

He tried to think on the bright side, he could always defeat the snake and eat in a soup, he didn't knew how but it was something he was sure Sakura would know how. But first, he had to skin the snake.

He jumped above to a branch and noticed that the snake's eyes glowed as they followed his movement, it creeped him out, but he was a ninja that one day would be the most amazing Hokage in the world. So, he pulled a explosive kunai out of his pouch and throw it towards the beast mouth.

The explosion did nothing to stop the monster and Naruto could see perfectly it's tongue when he was almost eaten alive. It was the worst way to die, eaten by a snake, like a rat.

He blinked in surprise when he heard a loud clash and noticed that he was perfectly alive and not inside a snake. Instead, he was observing a man with brown skin punching the snake with his bare fists.

It was cool. Perhaps, more cool that any stunt that Kakashi-sensei ever did, and Kakashi-sensei had summoned a water dragon. Then again, the giant snake was bigger that the water dragon so that made the dark man super cool.

There were some moments where Naruto could swear the man wasn't even touching the snake and still, his punches landed and cracked the wind with their force.

"Big bro! That was amazing!" Naruto said when the man finished, his eyes stars and just to awed to notice the man wasn't from his own village "You should tell me your secret"

The man saw Naruto, remained quiet and then gave him a thumb up. Naruto beamed as he mimicked the gesture. He could already feel they were going to be friends.

* * *

There was a young black haired teen, his face ringed a bell in Ichigo's mind but as sometimes happened, he couldn't place from where. Ichigo hid behind the tree, hearing the boy talking with an older man with the kind of voice that should have belonged to a granny.

The man's riatsu was off, like if the spirit and body were in dissonance and it projected a blood lust that was different from anyone Ichigo had battled before. Not even regular ninjas had so much power or edge. Wasn't the exam supposed to be aimed at Rockies?

"I will surrender the scroll if you let Sakura and me go" the boy said between greeted teeth "If not, I will burn it"

"No, Sasuke!" a girl screamed from some point outside Ichigo's view "What are you doing!? Are you a coward!?"

Ichigo scoffed. Kids believing that a ridiculous scroll and passing the exam was more important that their own lives. He supposed that was something ninjas did but Ichigo still found it dumb. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that the strange man was pretty powerful and the teens were outmatched.

"Who says I want the scroll?" The man asked as he walked towards the boy, moving like a snake seizing his prize. The man lounged after the boy in a swift motion.

And somehow managed to dodge Ichigo's sword.

Ichigo grimaced when he noticed his well craft attack was for naught and he had given up his cover for nothing. The boy was safe for whatever the strange man had planned, but Ichigo wasn't sure he could win in his gigai.

He gripped his sword and looked to the man yellow eyes, ready to parry the next attack, and do the wise thing of waiting Chad's help.

"Why are you helping the Konoha ninjas, aren't they your enemies" the man asked after, like a creep, licking his lips.

"I don't have to explain myself to you" Ichigo retorted, noticing that the boy behind him was regaining his combat stance and the girl was drawing a kunai from her bag. He hoped the ninja didn't notice that and keep his attention focused in Ichigo.

Chad was getting nearer, Ichigo could sense him jumping fastly, the odd riatsu of the kid following behind. He still remained as he was, waiting the strike.

The man glanced towards the direction of Chad's and grimaced. After, with a hand gesture, he was surrounded by leaves and was gone. Ichigo waited a few seconds, to make sure he wasn't near.

After noticing there wasn't any riatsu signature hiding, Ichigo dropped his guard.

"Who are you?" the black haired teen asked when the calm was set, his black eyes observing Ichigo as if he hadn't saved him just a few minutes ago. Ichigo supposed he should be used to that kind of attitude but he couldn't help himself to glare back "What do you want?"

"I'm Ichigo and I wanted to save your lives. You are welcome"

The boy dark eyes hardened and Ichigo finally felt himself recognizing the face. The little Uchiha boy that was with Uryu on the haunted place. The place where the Uchiha had committed a massacre against his own family.

Ichigo expression softened and he did nothing to make the boy more moody. Soon, Chad, and the boy with stranger riatsu at his side.

"Sakura! Sasuke! Are you fine? —the boy ran towards his friends before stopping mid step, and with a hand in his hair, he laughed "I'm sorry, I forgot the password"


	14. Before the war

**You know, I know that writing in English isn't my forte...but I was looking at the reviews from long ago...and like two people wanted an update. So here I am.**

* * *

There were a lot of things that Sosuke Aizen liked: the color white, the lily's flowers, the smell of ink and a plan going awry.

He didn't care if the plan belonged to him or other person, the aftermath was a promise of a new array of possibilities, evolution, change and improvement. It was a shame in his opinion, that after all his search of goodhood, he was still a human ruled by his vices and hubris. He had to be sent to Muken to truly appreciate what Ichigo had done and what Aizen had become thanks to the Hogyuaku. So many answers and so many questions that surely would end up advancing knowledge.

Even then, his rotten self and his more rational self did dislike something: children's experiments. Such a waste of possibilities, cutting the tree before even knowing if it could blossom. He understood perfectly how much making experiments with children helped but still, he preferred working with riatsu of adults beings.

Orochimaru's name had appeared first back when Grimmjow was stealing corpses, he was the predilect suspect until ghosts and the whispered Hyuga were blamed, then the name appeared on scrolls that told about clandestine laboratories full of experiments that would make Mayuri blush (of envy or disappointed was something that Aizen wasn't willing to bet), and now, just at the eve of the chunin exams, the name was whispered over the roofs as if saying the name was a sin.

Aizen smirked when he felt the energy of Orochimaru just two blocks away. He had gotten a reading of his riatsu back when the madman ran away from Ichigo, but it was enough to pinpoint it with easiness, after all ninjas were good at masking their chakras not their spirits.

That man, Orochimaru, must had a wicked plan in mind. Something prepared for the tournament just a week away. Aizen didn't know what exactly was planned or had a lot of curiosity over that, but he wanted the promised day to arrive. Ichigo and his group would surely do something amazing, and even then, the most interesting person above all was Naruto.

Orochimaru's plan would end or make path for Naruto. And Aizen did want to see how it all turned up. Until he had to return to his own universe, that Universe still had misteries to unveil.

* * *

Ichigo started to play with the kunai as he gazed lazely over the dusky city.

"Aren't you going to study about the Hyugas, your rival is that boy, Neji" Chad quipped, unlike Ichigo he was reading scrolls about the kid he was going to take, a Nara something. Ichigo was beyond caring.

"It's just a brat" Ichigo handwaved the notion of studying but his expression got grim as he remembered how that Nenji had almost crippled his own cousin. Neither Ichigo or Chad had seen it, their fights finished they preferred to try to tail a dark energy that roamed the place.

It was useless but at least that way they didn't had to endure watching kids trying to murder each other for a raise in salary.

"Naruto, Nenji, Shikamaru, Sasuke and Lee..those are the ninjas of Konoha; Gaara, Temari and Kankuro are from Sunna. Neji and Gaara seem to be the most blood lusted from them all."

"It's good that Lee and Naruto are against each other" Ichigo pointed out, glad that those two kids with wild fire were against people out for their blood. Sasuke on the other hand had a wicked luck and ended up against little red sicko that managed to murder a sound ninja in front of junins.

At least the the two siblings of the sand would take each other out. Ichigo was sure that under their make up those two were well trained assassins.

Ichigo started to play catch with the kunai, trying to distract himself over the fact that he was risking his life over a salary increase. Or more accurately, to get clearence for scrolls full of ninja physics. He hoped that ninja physics didn't include as much math as they did in his world, if so, then he would leave everything at Aizen's evil hands.

And that was another headache.

Somehow, probably thanks to Naruto jutsu of duplication, Aizen managed to become four times more dangerous. His riatsu was split in the same way that Naruto's shadow clones managed to do and considering the monster Aizen was, he probably had more of his clones away doing a lot of schemings.

He had to trust that Orihime and Uryu knew what they were dealing with. Working with Aizen was nevessnec after all, without him returning home and saving the world would be impossible.

* * *

"I don't understand" Uryu said as he tried again to exorcise the Uchiha compound, feeling a headche building in his forehead "The spirits are in perpetual unrest"

Like if someone had disturbed their dead bodies. That Uryu didn't say to the boy, who had declined a acpecial training in favor to help the spirits of his deseased family. It was easy to understand, Uryu himself had loved his mother dearly and if someone told him her spirit was in unrest, he would had done a lot of unsound decisions, like joining the murderer's army.

"I just can't ask for their bodies being exhumated over a hunch" the boy said coldly, knowing perfectly what Uryu wasn't saying "A lot were cremated and their ashes are perfectly safe in the compound's mausuleum"

"Are you sure they were?" Uryu said after some thinking. It was twisted to believe a village would have lied to a survivor of a massacre giving him ashes of strangers intead of the ones of his family. But if in the real world countries were perfectly capable of attrocities and lies, in Sasuke's ninja world, the attrocities should be the norm.

"Yes" Sasuke answered certain, more to hide his own doubts than out of complete certainly.

Uryu was about to say something when he felt the ANBU's riatsu approaching the place and decided that it was better to play smart. In a way Konoha was worst than Mayuri with it's surveillance. Mayuri wasn't the state and that was a relief.

He bid Sasuke farewell and walked towards home. It would be shameful, but he would have to find a way to scan himself to see if Mayuri's cameras were still in his blood stream. Just thinking about that made him feel dirty.

He stood corrected. Mayuri was worst than Konoha.

In any case, he knew than in a week, at the tournament, something would change and it tasted as fate that the answers to what happened to the Uchiha was going to keep buried longer. Perhaps forever.

In a lot of ways, Uryu thought, the Uchiha were the same as the Quincy. He just hoped there wasn't a powerful genocidal overlord waiting in the shadows. That would be a bad joke.

* * *

Another week and Konoha would be washed with blood. It would surely be a eyesore, Aizen mused as he looked at clone number one writing his novel. He needed time to finish his literature masterpiece and if the house was crashed in the riot that would be a setback.

But, he still wasn't interested in stopping the Sand Ninjas that were approaching at a steady pase, concelaed perfectly to anyone that couldn't sense riatsu, meaning that Uryu was bound to notice them later. But as Aizen, Uryu was going to let it happen.

A war wasn't their concern.

Grimmjow, on the other hand, was restless. He didn't knew about the breddibr war, but his hollow blood knew already that he was better looking for signs of danger. It would be interesting, Aizen thought after finishing reading a scroll about water clones, Grimmjow was that kind of territorial being that would jump as a wild dog if someone put in danger his territory.

But did this terrible village of lies and fake brightness be as worth as Las Noches was. Would Grimmjow go and make a chaos out of the infiltrated ninjas that put in risk the walls of a society of murderers that weren't Grimmjow's allies.

A clone dissipated and Aizen got some interesting memories of a desert. For shame, the clones would start getting mad after 300 kilometers away from the original, that or the four days had token their toll. He would need the other clones to dissipate to know.

He looked at the novelist clone and briefly wondered if the clones could go mad enough to try to kill or manipulate the original to show themselves how real they were. Aizen would do that. If only to pass time.

Kyoka Suigetsu had been right. Aizen had some serious issues problems that needed work. Probably more than building a machine to return to his original dimension.


End file.
